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Assessment

(PS3-A6) A Comparison of the SCARED, SCAS, and YAM-5 in the Assessment of Adolescent Anxiety

Friday, November 17, 2023
11:30 AM – 12:30 PM PST
Location: Regency Ballroom, Level 7
Screening for anxiety disorders in adolescents is necessary to identify and treat these concerns, which requires measures with good psychometric properties. One aim of the present study was to examine and compare the psychometric properties of the separation anxiety, social anxiety, panic, and generalized anxiety scales of the Screen for Child Anxiety-Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED; Birmaher et al., 1997), the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale (SCAS; Spence, 1998), and the Youth Anxiety Measure for DSM-5 (YAM-5; Muris et al., 2017b) with a community adolescent sample. Another aim was to examine the application of two theories of anxiety disorders in adults (i.e., experiential avoidance, intolerance of uncertainty) to anxiety disorders in adolescents. Three ESEMs consisting of four traits (one for each of the three measures including a trait for each scale of interest) were tested. Results showed that the panic scale did not function as expected and were removed from further analyses. Three additional ESEMs, this time with three traits, were tested. Mixed support was found for the three-trait models of the SCARED and SCAS, and support was found for the three-trait model of the YAM-5. Compared to the four-trait models, all of the three-trait models better fit the data overall.  A multitrait-multimethod matrix (MTMM) model was then used to assess convergent and discriminant validity. Support was found for the convergent validity of the separation, social, and generalized anxiety scales of all measures, with trait loadings ranging from medium to large in all cases and all reaching significance. Support was found for the discriminant validity of the social scales of all measures and the generalized scales of the SCARED and SCAS, with all method loadings being smaller than their respective trait loadings. Support was not found for the discriminant validity of any of the separation scales or the generalized scale of the YAM-5. Support was found for the criterion validity of all scales of all measures according to the magnitude of their correlations (medium to large) with the Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (SMFQ), a measure of depression symptoms. Finally, the magnitude of the effects of experiential avoidance and intolerance of uncertainty with each of the measures examined were large. The magnitude of the correlations among each of the three traits and experiential avoidance were small to large, while the magnitude of the correlations among each of the three traits and intolerance of uncertainty were small to medium. Implications of these findings for the assessment and understanding of anxiety symptomatology in adolescents are discussed.