The Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED): Informant Discrepancy, Measurement Invariance, and Test–Retest Reliability

Abstract

The Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) is a measure widely used to assess childhood anxiety based on parent and child report. However, while the SCARED is a reliable, valid, and sensitive measure to screen for pediatric anxiety disorders, informant discrepancy can pose clinical and research challenges. The present study assesses informant discrepancy, measurement invariance, test-retest reliability, and external validity of the SCARED in 1,092 anxious and healthy parent-child dyads. Our findings indicate that discrepancy does not vary systematically by the various clinical, demographic, and familial variables examined. There was support for strict measurement invariance, strong test-retest reliability, and adequate external validity with a clinician-rated measure of anxiety. These findings further support the utility of the SCARED in clinical and research settings, but low parent-child agreement highlights the need for further investigation of factors contributing to SCARED informant discrepancy.

Differences in Parent and Child Report on the Screen for Child Anxiety-Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED): Implications for Investigations of Social Anxiety in Adolescents

“…The SCARED generally shows only moderate correlations between child and parent report scores, especially for the SA subscale (Behrens et al 2018;Birmaher et al 1997Birmaher et al , 1999Cosi et al 2010;Dirks et al 2014;Rappaport et al 2017), and partial measurement invariance between reporters (Olino et al 2018). These findings align with data demonstrating weak to moderate correlations between child and parent report of internalizing problems like anxiety (Langer et al 2010) and depression (Kazdin et al 1983;Moretti et al 1985).…”

“…Moreover, the instrument demonstrates good convergent validity with other self-report measures of anxiety (e.g. CBCL and STAIC; Monga et al 2000), as well as clinician ratings (Behrens et al 2018;Cosi et al 2010).…”

Experience Versus Report: Where Are Changes Seen After Exposure-Based Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy? A Randomized Controlled Group Treatment of Childhood Social Anxiety Disorder

“…Although a meta-analysis also reported moderate to large agreement [39], the agreement on social anxiety in single studies is modest at best (e.g. [40][41][42].). This implies that treatment success may need to take both child and parent perspectives into account [41].…”

“…[40][41][42].). This implies that treatment success may need to take both child and parent perspectives into account [41]. Additionally, to allow for a more differentiated picture after treatment, in this current study we have included both a structured interview and a social stress task to evaluate if state social anxiety (cognitions, behavior, physiology) changes even if this is not reflected in social anxiety reports.…”

Use of the C.A.T. Project for a Socially Anxious Teenager: Lessons Learned From Manual Modification

“…The measure assesses for panic disorder/significant somatic symptoms, generalized anxiety disorder, separation anxiety disorder, SAD, and school avoidance while also providing a total score. The SCARED has been shown to have high internal consistency, moderate to large test–retest reliability, and moderate to large parent–child agreement (Behrens, Swetlitz, Pine, & Pagliaccio, 2018).…”