Dear Omid, 

Read this and go to the website: 

Behaviour Research and Therapy 42 (2004) 813–839

A parent-report measure of children’s anxiety: psychometric

properties and comparison with child-report in a clinic

and normal sample

Maaike H. Nauta et al. 

http://www.scaswebsite.com/index.php?p=1_17

Thanks

But explaining this mattet is important for you, i have seen this website before.

Dear Mr. Saed,

Although I'm not familiar with this scale, I have studied the information on their website and the article suggested by Ms. Ewald-Kvist. First of all I have two questions: Have you been giving the questionnaire only to the parents (using the parent form) or also to the children? And, was a diagnosis the expected result from these scales?

I must say that I'm not a psychometricist, but a clinician. For me the self-report questionnaires are at best a tool for initial indications on anxiety and/or pathology, no self-report test alone can be used to correctly diagnose a patient, or be a reliable predictor of pathology, since many environmental factors are involved, especially at such a young age . I would suggest using the Spence scale on both children (children form) and on parents (parent form) as an initial screening for possible diagnoses, and then having assessment interview with those who have high scores (risk population). In my experience a reliable diagnosis can be given only after assessment interviews.

Hope this helped and didn't go too much beyond the scope of your research.

Hi Gabriele

Our sample was preschool children. We gave scale to parents to completing. In second, we visited parents and childern for checking the scores driven from scale. Contrary to obtained scores from scale, in interviw, we didn't see critetias for any diagnosis. For accurate assessment, we adminsterated projective test on children because it was probable parents couldn't give us correct information. With this tool (projective) we found some of children have a lot criterias of anxiety disorders. Interview program could help us to diagnosis, but in many cases we can't impelment of interview such as for research.

I don't know why spence scale hasn't power of accurate diagnosis?

Hi Omid,

I wasn't saying that the Spence scale doesn't have power of diagnose. I was saying that in my experience no scale by itself leads to an accurate diagnosis. The scales can be used as powerful indicators for risk populations, but cannot be used as diagnosis because of the nature of what the diagnosis is. Even the more "medical" scales, such as the Adverse Childhood Experiences, are indicators for high probability of a certain diagnosis, but without a proper interview run the risk of being inaccurate, especially in cases with co-morbidity. Even though interviews can be inefficient in a research, they do have the power to assess the accuracy of the scales, and the accuracy of the diagnosis in follow-ups.

Dear Omid,

I am not sure about using any scale for anxiety on that young children. All scales are validated for children 7 and more years old!

Personally, I do not believe that any other anxiety disorder can start at this age except specific phobia....and this also can be developmental characteristic. However, I am very interested in seeing your results!

Dejan

Hi Dejan

I propose you checking Spence children ( pre-school) anxiety scale- parent version in Dr Spence Website. This scale assert some type of anxiety disorders, such as OCD, GAD, SAD and so on.