Reliability and Validity of Parent- and Child-Rated Anxiety Measures in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and anxiety frequently co-occur. Research on the phenomenology and treatment of anxiety in ASD is expanding, but is hampered by the lack of instruments validated for this population. This study evaluated the self- and parent-reported Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale in Children-2 among 46 youth with ASD. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability were acceptable, but inter-rater reliability was poor. Parent-child agreement was better for youth with higher IQs, less severe ASD symptoms, or more social cognitive skills. Convergent and divergent validity were acceptable. Demographic characteristics were considered as predictors of anxiety: they were unrelated to parent-report, but younger age and more severe ASD were related to increased self-reported anxiety.

Experience sampling of positive affect in adolescents with autism: Feasibility and preliminary findings

“…Although there are numerous studies in which high functioning individuals with ASD have reported affective states using self-report instruments (e.g., Sasson et al, 2012; Tseng et al, 2014; White et al, 2014), another potential limitation of the present study is the long-standing issue of the validity of self-report of affective states in ASD (Berthoz & Hill, 2005; Kaat & Lecavalier, 2015), and future research that addresses the correspondence between self- and caregiver-report indices of positive affect in ASD will be needed to address this issue. We highlight in this regard, however, that the ASD and control groups in this study showed relatively equivalent levels of positive affect, suggesting that the ASD group understood the meaning of PANAS-C items (although this observation is clearly not sufficient to establish the validity of self-reported positive affect in the ASD group, which should be addressed in future studies).…”

The measurement properties of the spence children's anxiety scale‐parent version in a large international pooled sample of young people with autism spectrum disorder

“…This often necessitates obtaining multi‐informant reports from caregivers or significant others. Although agreement in anxiety ratings between caregivers and children with ASD has ranged from poor [i.e., Kaat & Lecavalier, ; Kerns et al, ; Renno & Wood, ] to moderately good [i.e., Blakeley‐Smith, Reaven, Ridge, & Hepburn, ; Magiati, Chan, Tan, & Poon, ; Ozsivadjian, Hibberd, & Hollocks, ; van Steensel et al, ], storch et al [] found that parental reports contributed significantly to the clinical diagnosis of anxiety. Thus, parent report remains an important way of assessing anxiety in youth with ASD.…”

How Anxious Do You Think I Am? Relationship Between State and Trait Anxiety in Children With and Without ASD During Social Tasks

“…Second, several symptoms of anxiety, such as social withdrawal and insistence upon sameness, are also symptoms of autism, making it difficult to differentiate which underlying disorder is the cause of outward behaviors (Baron, 2006; Kuusikko et al, 2008; White et al, 2009; Kerns & Kendall, 2012; Hallet et al, 2013; van Steensel, Bogels, & Wood, 2013; White et al, 2014). Third, there is limited agreement between parent- and child-reported scores on anxiety surveys in this population (Kaat & Lecavalier, 2015). The combination of these factors has fostered a general distrust of commonly used anxiety measures in ASD.…”

“…By using several standardized anxiety measures, a combination of self- and parent-reports, and biophysiological responses to task-evoked stress, we aimed to improve our understanding of how adolescents with ASD experience and express anxiety during social context. We predicted that parent- and self- reports in the ASD cohort will reflect higher levels of trait anxiety than in the TD group (Kaat & Lecavalier, 2015). We also anticipated that adolescents with ASD would show more pronounced changes in sympathetic and parasympathetic activity (state anxiety) during a high-stress task than their TD peers, and that these changes would correspond to higher levels of trait anxiety in this population.…”