Psychometric Properties of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) in a Non-Clinical Sample of Children and Adolescents in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

This paper examined the reliability, convergent validity and factor structure of the self-report Screen for Child Anxiety Disorders (SCARED; Birmaher et al. in J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 36:545–553, 1997) in a large community sample of children and adolescents in Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire showed moderate to high internal consistency and satisfactory test–retest reliability over a 2 week period. In addition, there were significant positive correlations between reported anxiety symptoms with parent report behavioural difficulties. The five factor structure model of the SCARED also had a good model fit in this population. The results showed that self-report anxiety symptoms decreased with age (for boys and not girls) and were higher in adolescent girls. The results suggest that the SCARED could be useful in this population to identify individuals who are at risk of developing anxiety disorders in childhood with a view to implementing prevention and intervention methods to ensure positive developmental outcome over time.

Anxiety in Malaysian children and adolescents: validation of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED)

“…14 Additionally, the mean scores for total anxiety obtained in this sample can also be compared with previous normative data. Our data reveal a mean score of 28.63 (SD = 11.80), which is lower than observed in Saudi Arabian children and adolescents, 18 but higher than in Western samples. 21 The elevated scores in non-white samples could be in part attributable to the fact that they are living in cultures which favor inhibition, compliance, and obedience.…”

“…Consistent with findings from a wide array of existing studies, with Italian twins, 8 Chinese children, 6 African-American adolescents, 24 and Saudi Arabian children and adolescents, 18 the School Avoidance subscale was not found to be reliable. One possible reason for this is that the School Avoidance subscale does not appear to be part of the same construct as other anxiety disorders, nor it is not classified under the DSM-categorization, even if its symptoms are closely associated with anxiety disorders.…”

“…This is consistent with the anxiety literature demonstrating a positive link between the two measurements. 5,7,18,21,26 Using CFA, the original five-factor solution specified by the scale's authors 5,21 provided a poor fit to the data. anxiety disorders is common, since many symptoms of anxiety disorders are not exclusively specific to that disorder.…”

“…In the original study, the SCARED demonstrated good reliability, with values of internal consistency for the five subscales ranging from 0.74 to 0.89 and 0.93 for the total scale. 5 To date, several validation studies of the SCARED have been carried out in different community samples [18][19][20] and epidemiological samples. 21,22 These studies have supported the scale's internal consistency and testretest reliability.…”

Anxiety related disorders in adolescents in the United Arab Emirates: a population based cross-sectional study

“…An Arabic version of the SCARED scale (A-SCARED) has been developed, with validity and reliability established in Arabic speaking Lebanon [39] and Saudi Arabia [40]. The general reliability score of the A-SCARED was reported as α = 0.91 [39].…”