Screen for child anxiety related emotional disorders: are subscale scores reliable? A bifactor model analysis

Diogo Araújo DeSousa; Murilo Ricardo Zibetti; Clarissa Marceli Trentini; Silvia Helena Koller; Gisele Gus Manfro; Giovanni Abrahão Salum

doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2014.10.002

Screen for child anxiety related emotional disorders: are subscale scores reliable? A bifactor model analysis

J Anxiety Disord. 2014 Dec;28(8):966-70. doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2014.10.002. Epub 2014 Oct 30.

Authors

Diogo Araújo DeSousa¹, Murilo Ricardo Zibetti², Clarissa Marceli Trentini³, Silvia Helena Koller⁴, Gisele Gus Manfro⁵, Giovanni Abrahão Salum⁶

Affiliations

¹ Anxiety Disorders Outpatient Program for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (PROTAIA), Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (HCPA), Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil; Center for Psychological Studies on At-Risk Populations (CEP-Rua), Institute of Psychology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil. Electronic address: diogo.a.sousa@gmail.com.
² Study Group in Psychopathology and Psychological Assessment, Institute of Psychology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil. Electronic address: mrzibetti@gmail.com.
³ Study Group in Psychopathology and Psychological Assessment, Institute of Psychology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil. Electronic address: clarissatrentini@terra.com.br.
⁴ Center for Psychological Studies on At-Risk Populations (CEP-Rua), Institute of Psychology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil. Electronic address: silvia.koller@gmail.com.
⁵ Anxiety Disorders Outpatient Program for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (PROTAIA), Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (HCPA), Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil; National Science and Technology Institute for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (INPD), Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (HCPA), Brazil. Electronic address: gmanfro@gmail.com.br.
⁶ Anxiety Disorders Outpatient Program for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (PROTAIA), Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (HCPA), Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil; National Science and Technology Institute for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (INPD), Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (HCPA), Brazil. Electronic address: gsalumjr@gmail.com.

PMID: 25445087
DOI: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2014.10.002

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the utility of creating and scoring subscales for the self-report version of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) by examining whether subscale scores provide reliable information after accounting for a general anxiety factor in a bifactor model analysis. A total of 2420 children aged 9-18 answered the SCARED in their schools. Results suggested adequate fit of the bifactor model. The SCARED score variance was hardly influenced by the specific domains after controlling for the common variance in the general factor. The explained common variance (ECV) for the general factor was large (63.96%). After accounting for the general total score (ωh=.83), subscale scores provided very little reliable information (ωh ranged from .005 to .04). Practitioners that use the SCARED should be careful when scoring and interpreting the instrument subscales since there is more common variance to them than specific variance.

Keywords: Anxiety; Bifactor model; Factor structure; Psychometrics; Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Affective Symptoms / diagnosis*
Affective Symptoms / psychology
Age Factors
Anxiety / diagnosis
Anxiety / psychology*
Anxiety Disorders / diagnosis*
Anxiety Disorders / psychology
Child
Female
Humans
Male
Psychometrics
Self Report*
Sex Factors