Adapting Depression and Anxiety Questionnaire for Children into Turkish: Reliability and Validity Studies

Abstract

Purpose of this study is to adapt anxiety and depression questionnaire for children into Turkish culture and to analyze the psychometric characteristics of it on clinical and nonclinical samples separately. The study is a descriptive survey research. The study was conducted on two different sample groups, clinical and nonclinical. The clinical sample is formed of 205 individuals and the nonclinical sample is formed of 630 individuals. Through the study, anxiety and depression questionnaire for children, anxiety sensitivity index and obsessive compulsive disorder questionnaire for children were used. Experts' opinions were asked to provide language validity of the scale. Confirmatory factor analysis and criterion-related validity to analyze construct validity and internal consistency and split-half reliability analyses were done for reliability. In the direction of experts' opinions, construct validity of the scale was analyzed with simple confirmatory factor analysis and it was determined that the model fit of the two-factor structure of the scale gives good fit on both the clinical and nonclinical samples after determining that the language validity of the scale is provided. In criterion-related validity, it was determined that there are positive and significant relations between anxiety and depression questionnaire for children and anxiety sensitivity and obsessive compulsive disorder. The results of internal consistency and half-split reliability analyses also show that the scale has adequate reliability value.

Investigation of the Effect of the Fear of COVID-19 on School Refusal in terms of Depression, Anxiety, Social Functioning and Academic Resilience

“…In this respect, it can be said that the level of social functioning of the individual may have a protective function in the negative results expected to develop due to the fear of COVID-19. The results of limited studies addressing the role of social functioning corroborate the perception that it may have a protective function against school refusal [3]. The results of the research conducted by Gonzálvez, et al (2019) determined that there is a high relationship between low school refusal and high social functioning, whereas students with intense school refusal have low social functioning in school performance, peer and parent relationships.…”

“…Although the medical outcomes caused by the epidemic are the primary focus of countries and communities all over the world, it is likely that restrictive quarantine, etc., which are applied in order to prevent the spread of the epidemic and because of the fear of the epidemic, will have secondary consequences on children as well as adults. It is inevitable for the individuals to develop psycho-social problems because of witnessing the consequences of the epidemic and it's widely dissemination [1][2][3][4][5].…”

“…behavior problems can be shown among them (18). Among these behavioral problems that are increasingly common among young people, school refusal has an important place [3]. School refusal is defined as a phenomenon that includes full or partial absenteeism, chronic lateness, developing deliberate behaviors attempting to skip the school in the morning or serious symptoms that accelerate the demand not to go to school in the future [14].…”

“…It is thought that social functioning may have an important place among these characteristics. Social functioning is defined as a positive quality, including emotional, cognitive, and linguistic processes related to a person's social skills [3,21]. In this respect, it can be said that the level of social functioning of the individual may have a protective function in the negative results expected to develop due to the fear of COVID-19.…”

“…Academic resilience can be shown as another quality that is thought to reduce the risk of the fear of COVID-19 in the development of problematic school absenteeism issues in young people. Academic resilience, which can be considered as a derivative of psychological resilience [3], is defined as the tendency towards academic determination and success despite socially and psychologically stressful and difficult life events [22][23][24][25]. In this sense, young people with high academic resilience can be expected to show high levels of determination and success despite the negative effects of the intense fear and stress situation likely to develop due to the COVID-19 epidemic [3,32].…”