title: Comparisons of the Factor Structure and Measurement Invariance of the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale-Parent Version in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Typically Developing Anxious Children.
abstract: The Spence Children's Anxiety Scale-Parent version (SCAS-P) is often used to assess anxiety in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), however, little is known about the validity of the tool in this population. The aim of this study was to determine whether the SCAS-P has the same factorial validity in a sample of young people with ASD (n = 285), compared to a sample of typically developing young people with anxiety disorders (n = 224). Poor model fit with all of the six hypothesised models precluded invariance testing. Exploratory factor analysis indicated that different anxiety phenomenology characterises the two samples. The findings suggest that cross-group comparisons between ASD and anxious samples based on the SCAS-P scores may not always be appropriate.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Level 3, Sir James Spence Institute, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Queen Victoria Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4LP, UK.
authors.forename: Magdalena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Glod
authors.affiliation: Anxiety and Depression in Young People (AnDY) Research Clinic, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Earley Gate, Reading, RG6 6AL, UK.
authors.forename: Cathy
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Creswell
authors.affiliation: Anxiety and Depression in Young People (AnDY) Research Clinic, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Earley Gate, Reading, RG6 6AL, UK.
authors.forename: Polly
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Waite
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Newcastle University, 4th Floor, Ridley Building 1, Queen Victoria Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK.|Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS, Glasgow, Scotland, UK.
authors.forename: Ruth
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jamieson
authors.affiliation: Institute of Health and Society, Newcastle University, Level 3, Sir James Spence Institute, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Queen Victoria Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4LP, UK.
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: McConachie
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Brigham Young University, 245 TLRB, Provo, UT, 84602, USA.
authors.forename: Mikle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Don South
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Level 3, Sir James Spence Institute, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Queen Victoria Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4LP, UK. jacqui.rodgers@ncl.ac.uk.|School of Psychology, Newcastle University, 4th Floor, Ridley Building 1, Queen Victoria Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK. jacqui.rodgers@ncl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Jacqui
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1759-316X
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rodgers
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002648:Child; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
keywords: Anxiety; Anxiety disorders; Autism spectrum disorder; Measurement invariance; SCAS-P