Sensitivity and Specificity of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED): A Community-Based Study

Abstract

The aim of this cross-sectional community-based study was to examine the sensitivity and specificity of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) to the diagnosis of anxiety disorders (AD). Participants were 119 students aged 9-18. Psychiatric diagnoses were assessed by a psychiatrist throughout a structural clinical interview (K-SADS-PL). Forty-four participants had positive diagnosis for at least one AD. The total score of the SCARED significantly differentiated anxious from non-anxious children with an optimal cutoff point of 22 (sensitivity = 81.8 %; specificity = 52.0 %). SCARED subscales of social phobia and separation anxiety disorder, but not generalized anxiety disorder, revealed better discrimination proprieties than total scores to screen for that specific disorder (p < .05). Both total and specific SCARED scores presented moderate sensitivity and specificity for detecting AD in a community sample. Investigators interested in screening for specific AD, rather than the group of AD, may benefit from using the specific subscales.

Anxiety, depression, resilience and quality of life in children and adolescents with pre-dialysis chronic kidney disease

“…However, the authors of the SCARED validation study in Brazil [33] found a prevalence of 37 % of at least one anxiety disorder, with mean scores of 23.51, which are similar to those scores of our controls (22.8). This elevated frequency might be explained by the screening nature of this highly [12] found no significant correlation between anxiety symptoms and clinical or laboratory parameters of CKD.…”

“…Fukunishi and colleagues [13] reported that 65.4 % of their a sample of 53 children and adolescents with CKD had separation anxiety. The percentage of our sample demonstrating this anxiety symptom, using the cut-off validated for the Brazilian population [33], was 22.7 %. While the average age in Fukunishi et al's study was 9.4 and 9.7 years for patients on peritoneal dialysis and post-transplant, respectively, the average age of our sample was 13.7 years.…”

“…It can also be scored per subscale: panic/somatic, generalized anxiety, separation anxiety, social phobia and school phobia. The total cut-off point for the Brazilian population was set at 22 [33].…”

Phonemic verbal fluency and severity of anxiety disorders in young children

“…The SCARED has been translated into Brazilian-Portuguese and this version demonstrated good psychometric properties. 16,17 The SCARED total score (rather than subscale scores) was used as the dependent measure, as suggested in the literature. words -which do not form clusters); and 4) isolated words (words that did not form clusters).…”

Validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the DSM-5 Separation Anxiety Disorder Severity Scale–child form

“…Indeed, they interrogate the presence of any anxiety disorder according to DSM-IV criteria, resulting in an overall assessment. Although they were confirmed to be effective in distinguishing children with anxiety disorders and those without, it has been largely ignored that age-appropriate and disorder-specific scales are much needed during both diagnosis and follow-up [6,7]. Separation Anxiety Scale for Children and Separation Anxiety Assessment Scale are among the specific scales used within this field [8].…”