Psychometric Properties of the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale with an Iranian Sample

Abstract

The Spence Children's Anxiety Scale (SCAS) is proposed to measure anxiety in 6-12 years old based on the APA (DSM-IV, 1994) classification system. The scale includes six correlated factors of separation anxiety, social phobia, obsessive-compulsive, panic with agoraphobia, generalized anxiety disorder, and fear of physical injury. The scale was validated using a confirmatory-exploratory factor analysis for the age range of 8-12 and 7-19. Further, it has been standardized in the Netherlands, Australia, Japan, Germany, England, New Zealand, and Austria, demonstrating high reliability and validity. The present study examined its use with 417 male and female students aged 6-12 years old in Tehran, Iran. The confirmatory factor analysis of six uncorrelated factors supported the six hypothesized factors, with strong internal consistency of subscales and the total score and indicated a good fit index for six factors. The Chi-square value also explains the covariance of the data. An exploratory factor analysis was also performed using Varimax original and rotative indices which is consistent with the proposed factor structure. The Cronbach alpha calculated for the internal reliability of the scale and the internal consistency of the total score was high, which is consistent with the results reported by other investigators. The results of this study have shown that the SCAS has suitable psychometric property among the Iranian primary school children and it is probably a clinically valuable tool in the assessment of childhood anxiety.