Performance of the Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale in a Sample of Children and Adolescents from Poor Urban Communities in Cape Town

Abstract

The Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS) is regularly used with South African children, although its performance in this context has yet to be empirically evaluated. This study assessed the basic psychometric properties of the RCMAS using data collected in a large study examining the mental health of children and adolescents living in poor urban communities around Cape Town. Reliability of the full-scale was good, and the predicted relationships between anxiety, depression, PTSD, delinquency, age, sex, and somaticism scores offered evidence of construct validity. However, the reliabilities for the physiological, worry/oversensitivity, and concentration subscales were low, and confirmatory factor analysis revealed the hypothesized three-factor model did not adequately fit the data. Exploratory analyses suggested a four-factor solution consisting of social evaluation, worry, affective responses, and physiological symptoms/sleep disturbance factors. Further confirmatory research examining this four-factor structure is needed. Given the continued use of the RCMAS in South Africa, these findings provide an important first step in establishing its reliability and validity for use with South African youth; however, scores obtained on the three subscales should be interpreted with caution and further detailed psychometric evaluation of the RCMAS in South African samples is clearly required.

Psychometric properties of the RCMAS-2 in pediatric cancer patients

“…Fan and Sivo (2005) suggested that researchers should not solely rely on stand-alone indexes for assessing model fit. Additionally, the current study might provide the factor structure of anxiety symptoms in pediatric oncology population, and it may differ from previous studies in healthy children and adolescents (Boyes and Cluver, 2013;Pina et al, 2009;Reynolds and Richmond, 2008;Richmond et al, 1988;Wilson et al, 1990). This suggests that further structure evaluation of the RCMAS-2 in pediatric cancer population is clearly required.…”

Relationships Between Familial HIV/AIDS and Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression: The Mediating Effect of Bullying Victimization in a Prospective Sample of South African Children and Adolescents

“…Total anxiety scores were calculated by summing all items. The RCMAS has been validated for use with South African samples (Boyes and Cluver 2013a) and the abbreviated version demonstrated excellent reliability in the current sample (Baseline: a = .81; Follow-up: a = .81).…”

Pathways to poor educational outcomes for HIV/AIDS-affected youth in South Africa

“…Anxiety symptoms were measured using an abbreviated version of the widely used Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (Reynolds & Richmond, 1978). The full scale has been validated for use in South Africa (Boyes & Cluver, 2013). The 14 highest loading items from a factor analysis of the 2005 data were administered in 2009 (α = 0.82).…”