Assessment of anxiety symptoms in school children: a cross-sex and ethnic examination

J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2015 Feb;43(2):297-309. doi: 10.1007/s10802-014-9907-4.

Abstract

We evaluated the cross-sex and -ethnic (Hispanic/Latino, non-Hispanic White) measurement invariance of anxiety symptoms based on the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale (SCAS) as well as SCAS anxiety symptoms' correspondence with scores on the 5-item Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) and teacher ratings of child anxiety. Based on data corresponding to 702 children (M age = 9.65, SD = 0.70; 51.9 % girls; 55 % Hispanic/Latino), findings showed some sex and ethnic variations in SCAS measured anxiety at the item and scale levels. Moreover, SCAS correspondence to the 5-item SCARED was found across ethnicity and sex. SCAS correspondence to teacher ratings was found for non-Hispanic White boys and non-Hispanic White girls, marginally in Hispanic/Latino boys, and poorly in Hispanic/Latino girls.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Affective Symptoms / ethnology
  • Affective Symptoms / psychology
  • Anxiety, Separation / ethnology
  • Anxiety, Separation / psychology
  • Child
  • Fear / psychology
  • Female
  • Hispanic or Latino / ethnology
  • Hispanic or Latino / psychology
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Phobic Disorders / ethnology
  • Phobic Disorders / psychology*
  • School Health Services
  • Sex Characteristics
  • White People / ethnology
  • White People / psychology