An examination of the RCMAS-2 scores across gender, ethnic background, and age in a large Asian school sample.

Abstract

The present study investigated the factor structure, reliability, convergent and discriminant validity, and U.S. norms of the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale, Second Edition (RCMAS-2; C. R. Reynolds & B. O. Richmond, 2008a) scores in a Singapore sample of 1,618 school-age children and adolescents. Although there were small statistically significant differences in the average RCMAS-2 T scores found across various demographic groupings, on the whole, the U.S. norms appear adequate for use in the Asian Singapore sample. Results from item bias analyses suggested that biased items detected had small effects and were counterbalanced across gender and ethnicity, and hence, their relative impact on test score variation appears to be minimal. Results of factor analyses on the RCMAS-2 scores supported the presence of a large general anxiety factor, the Total Anxiety factor, and the 5-factor structure found in U.S. samples was replicated. Both the large general anxiety factor and the 5-factor solution were invariant across gender and ethnic background. Internal consistency estimates ranged from adequate to good, and 2-week test-retest reliability estimates were comparable to previous studies. Evidence providing support for convergent and discriminant validity of the RCMAS-2 scores was also found. Taken together, findings provide additional cross-cultural evidence of the appropriateness and usefulness of the RCMAS-2 as a measure of anxiety in Asian Singaporean school-age children and adolescents.

Examination of the Psychometric Properties of the Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale–Second Edition Scores Among Chinese Secondary School Students

“…The Worry and Social Anxiety items loaded on one factor on the RCMAS-2-C in the present study instead of two as found in previous studies (Ang et al, 2011;Lowe, 2014a;Reynolds & Richmond, 2008b). However, similarities between the items on these two scales were also noted on the English version of the RCMAS-2 (Raad, 2013;Reynolds & Richmond, 2008b).…”

“…On the RCMAS-2-C, the categorical omega value for the Physiological Anxiety scores was moderate. Previous studies with Asian samples also reported moderate Cronbach's alpha for this scale's scores (Ang et al, 2011;Wu et al, 2016). Researchers have found that people from different cultures sometimes report different physical symptoms that accompanying the same mental health problems (Waza, Graham, Zyzanski, & Inoue, 1999).…”

Psychometric properties of the RCMAS-2 in pediatric cancer patients

“…The RCMAS-2 reported good evidence of internal consistency (a ¼ 0.90) that was similar to the previous research using the RCMAS-2 in healthy children in the United States (Reynolds and Richmond, 2008) (a ¼ 0.92) and Chinese healthy adolescents in Singapore (Ang et al, 2011) …”

Cluster randomised-control trial for an Australian child protection education program: Study protocol for the Learn to be safe with Emmy and friends™

“…(α = .82), [ 34 ]. Test-retest reliability has been calculated at .54 for the total score with a US sample [ 34 ] and .61 to .68 with an Asian sample [ 35 ].…”