A psychometric analysis of the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scales--parent version in a school sample

J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2011 Feb;39(2):173-85. doi: 10.1007/s10802-010-9460-8.

Abstract

The Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale-Parent Version (RCADS-P) is a parent-report questionnaire of youth anxiety and depression with scales corresponding to the DSM diagnoses of separation anxiety disorder, social phobia, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and major depressive disorder. The RCADS-P was recently developed and has previously demonstrated strong psychometric properties in a clinic-referred sample (Ebesutani et al., Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 38, 249-260, 2010b). The present study examined the psychometric properties of the RCADS-P in a school-based population. As completed by parents of 967 children and adolescents, the RCADS-P demonstrated high internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and good convergent/divergent validity, supporting the RCADS-P as a measure of internalizing problems specific to depression and five anxiety disorders in school samples. Normative data are also reported to allow for the derivation of T-scores to enhance clinicians' ability to make classification decisions using RCADS-P subscale scores.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Anxiety / diagnosis*
  • Anxiety / psychology
  • Anxiety Disorders / diagnosis*
  • Anxiety Disorders / psychology
  • Child
  • Depression / diagnosis*
  • Depression / psychology
  • Depressive Disorder / diagnosis*
  • Depressive Disorder / psychology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Parents / psychology
  • Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
  • Psychometrics
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Schools
  • Severity of Illness Index
  • Surveys and Questionnaires