title: Screening efficiency of the self-report version of the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children in a highly comorbid inpatient sample.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC) is a widely used self-report questionnaire for the assessment of anxiety symptoms in children and adolescents with well documented predictive validity of the total score and subscales in internalizing and mixed clinical samples. However, no data exist on the screening efficiency in an inpatient sample of adolescents.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To examine the psychometric properties and screening efficiency of the MASC in a high comorbid inpatient sample.
  
  
  METHODS
  The current study used receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses to investigate the predictive value of the MASC total and subscale scores for the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-age children-Present and Lifetime version (K-SADS-PL), DSM-IV diagnoses of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), separation anxiety disorder (SAD) and social phobia (SoP) in a highly comorbid inpatient sample of adolescents (11-18 years).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The MASC total score predicted any anxiety disorder (AD) and GAD moderately well. Physical symptoms predicted GAD moderately well. Social anxiety and separation anxiety/panic did not predict SoP or SAD, respectively. Physical symptoms and harm avoidance also predicted the presence of major depressive disorder.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings support the utility of the MASC total score to predict the presence of any AD and GAD. However, the utility of the social anxiety and separation anxiety/panic subscales showed limited utility to predict the presence of SAD and SoP, respectively. The MASC has probably a more limited function in screening for AD among a highly comorbid inpatient sample of severely affected adolescents. Our results should be interpreted in the light of a small, mixed sample of inpatient adolescents.
authors.affiliation: a Gudmundur Skarphedinsson, Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health , Eastern and Southern Norway, Oslo , Norway.
authors.forename: Gudmundur
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Skarphedinsson
authors.affiliation: b Marianne A. Villabø, Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health , Eastern and Southern Norway, Oslo , Norway.
authors.forename: Marianne A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Villabø
authors.affiliation: c Bertrand Lauth, University of Iceland and Landspitali University Hospital , Reykjavik , Iceland.
authors.forename: Bertrand
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lauth
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D015897:Comorbidity; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007055:Iceland / Q000453:epidemiology; D007297:Inpatients / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000592:standards; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D057566:Self Report / Q000592:standards*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*
keywords: Adolescents; Anxiety; Depression; Inpatients; Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC); ROC curve