title: Psychometric properties and diagnostic ability of the separation anxiety scale for children (SASC).
abstract: This research describes the psychometric properties of a new child self-report measure, the separation anxiety scale for children (SASC), which assesses the frequency of symptoms of separation anxiety in children from 8 to 11. The factor solution with a sample of 1,201 children from 8 to 11, isolated three factors, discomfort from separation, worry about separation, and calm at separation, tested by confirmatory factor analysis, which accounted for 32.80% of the total variance. Results indicated that the SASC has a high internal consistency (alpha = 0.83). The results revealed a high test-retest reliability of the instrument, and a high number of correctly diagnosed cases. The correlation of scores with other anxiety measures shows that the variable most associated with separation anxiety is trait-anxiety.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Personalidad Evaluación y Tratamiento Psicológico, University of Murcia, Campus Universitario de Espinardo Ap. 4021, 30080 Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Méndez
authors.forename: José P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Espada
authors.forename: Mireia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Orgilés
authors.forename: Maria D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Hidalgo
authors.forename: José M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: García-Fernández
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001010:Anxiety, Separation / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012494:Sampling Studies; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data