Abstract:
Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental, emotional and behavioral problems
to occur during childhood and adolescence. The early recognition of emotional problems in
children is essential for better developmental and treatment outcomes. Self-report measures
can be valuable components of a comprehensive assessment of anxiety in children. The
rationale behind this study was to compare the incidence of anxiety symptoms and their
relationship with gender and age in children in Sri Lanka using the Spence Children's
Anxiety Scale (SCAS). SCAS is a self-report measure that was designed to evaluate
symptoms relating to panic-agoraphobia, separation anxiety, social phobia, obsessive
compulsive disorder, physical injury fears and generalized anxiety/ overanxious disorder. The
reliability and validity of the SCAS were examined with 480 children and adolescents aged
08 to 16 years and it demonstrated to have high internal consistency (alpha: 0.86). Results of
the internal consistency for the subscales indicated an alpha range from 0.51 to 0. 71 and the
correlation analyses indicated that each of the subscales was correlated, ranging from a weak
correlation of 0.24 between the obsessive compulsive disorder and physical injury fears
subscales to a moderate correlation of 0.55 between the social phobia and generalized anxiety
disorder/over anxious disorder subscales. Findings also show that the girls displayed
significantly higher levels of anxiety symptoms than boys. The usefulness of the SCAS as a
screening tool for anxiety symptoms in children is also briefly discussed.
