Psychometric properties of the Brazilian-Portuguese version of the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale (SCAS): Self- and parent-report versions
Section snippets
Community sample
A total of 735 students participated in the study in schools from urban and suburban areas in the states of Rio Grande do Sul, São Paulo, and Sergipe, which are located in different Brazilian regions (South, Southeast, and Northeast, respectively). Rio Grande do Sul is the southernmost state in Brazil, with the fourth highest Human Development Index (HDI) in the country and a large European cultural influence due to its colonization history. São Paulo is the richest Brazilian state, located on
Factor structure
The CFA and multigroup CFA results are depicted in Table 2. The six correlated factors model (Model 3) had the best fit to the sample among the four models tested for both self- and parent-report versions of the SCAS. Furthermore chi-square difference tests showed that Model 3 significantly improved the fit to the data as compared to Models 1 and 2 (p < .001). However the fit indices presented mixed results (good RMSEA, marginally acceptable CFI and TLI, and unacceptable WRMR). Since Model 3 had
Discussion
The present study investigated the psychometric properties of the Brazilian version of the SCAS (self- and parent-report versions). Our results suggest that the Brazilian SCAS has appropriate psychometric properties and can be considered a reliable and valid instrument to the assessment of anxiety symptoms in Brazilian youth, as examined in five domains: (1) factor structure; (2) convergent and divergent validity; (3) child–parent correlation and informant effect; (4) internal consistency; and
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the Brazilian National Research Council (CNPq). We thank all the children and adolescents, parents, teachers and other education professionals for their participation or contribution to this study. We also thank Arlete Salcides, Marcella Cassiano, Mariana Valadares, and Rodrigo Kreitchmann, along with their research groups, for making available the databases of their research projects for the composition of part of the community sample used in this study.
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2016, Journal of Affective DisordersCitation Excerpt :Although the SCAS was originally created to be applied to Australian children aged 8–12 (Spence, 1997, 1998) and adolescents aged 13–14 (Spence et al., 2003), since its creation it has been translated into 19 languages (Orgilés et al., 2013), and this number is constantly increasing. The psychometric properties and factorial structure of the SCAS have been examined in samples from numerous countries, including Belgium (Muris, et al., 2002a), Brazil (DeSousa et al., 2014), Bulgaria (Tsocheva et al., 2013), China (Essau et al., 2008; Li et al., 2011; Zhao et al., 2012), Colombia (Crane and Campbell, 2010), Cyprus (Essau et al., 2011a, 2011b), England (Essau et al., 2011b), Germany (Essau et al., 2008, 2011b, 2002, 2004), Greece (Mellon and Moutavelis, 2007), Iran (Essau et al., 2012), Italy (Essau et al., 2011b; Di Riso et al., 2013), Japan (Essau et al., 2004; Ishikawa et al., 2009), Mexico (Hernández-Guzmán et al., 2010), South Africa (Muris et al., 2002b), Spain (Carrillo et al., 2012; Godoy et al., 2011; Orgilés et al., 2012, 2013; Tortella-Feliu et al., 2005), Sweden (Essau et al., 2011b), the Netherlands (Muris, et al., 2000), and the USA (Whiteside and Brown, 2008). However, although there is enough empirical evidence demonstrating the reliability of the SCAS in different cultures, variability has been found among studies in the alpha values on each SCAS subscale and on the SCAS total score; for example a variability in the SAD subscale from 0.55 (Orgilés et al., 2013) to 0.85 (Essau et al., 2011b).
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2020, Spanish Journal of Psychology