A questionnaire for screening a broad range of DSM-defined anxiety disorder symptoms in clinically referred children and adolescents.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the reliability and validity of the 66-item Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders-Revised (SCARED-R), a questionnaire for measuring a broad range of DSM-defined anxiety disorder symptoms, in a sample of clinically referred youths.


METHODS
The SCARED-R was administered to children/adolescents and their parents during the standard intake assessment. SCARED-R scores were compared against Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) scores, DSM-IV axis I classifications, and global assessment of functioning (GAF) ratings.


RESULTS
In this sample of clinically referred youths, the SCARED-R was reliable in terms of internal consistency and showed reasonable child-parent agreement. Furthermore, SCARED-R scores correlated significantly with CBCL internalising but not with externalising. Within the group of children with anxiety disorders, SCARED-R scores were also negatively associated with children's daily functioning as rated on the GAF scale. Finally, SCARED-R scores had satisfactory discriminant validity (both between anxiety disorders and other problems and within anxiety disorders), and appeared to have reasonable value for predicting specific anxiety disorders.


CONCLUSIONS
The SCARED-R is a valuable addition to the arsenal of questionnaires that are used for the assessment of anxiety in youths.
Muris
Peter
P
Deparrtment of Medical, Clinical, and Experimental Psychology, Maastricht University, The Netherlands. p.muris@dep.unimaas.nl
Dreessen
Laura
L
Bögels
Susan
S
Weckx
Miryam
M
van Melick
Marion
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000296:Adolescent Psychiatry; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002665:Child Psychiatry; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires