The Assessment of Anxiety Symptoms in Preschool-Aged Children: The Revised Preschool Anxiety Scale

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to test the validity and factorial structure of a modified version of the Preschool Anxiety Scale (Spence, Rapee, McDonald, & Ingram, 2001). The measure was completed by 764 mothers and 418 fathers of children aged 3 to 5 years. After removing, two items tapping obsessive compulsive symptoms, confirmatory factor analysis showed that a four-factor model (social anxiety, generalized anxiety, separation anxiety, specific fears) all loading on a higher order "anxiety" factor, provided an optimal fit for the data. The total scale and 4 subscales showed strong internal consistency (alphas = .72-.92), 12-month stability y (rs = .60-.75) and maternal/paternal agreement (rs = .60-.75). Scores on the scale also showed expected correlations with a measure of emotional distress, diagnosed anxiety disorders, and behavioral indicators of anxiety.

Depression and Anxiety in Preschoolers

“…Several studies have confirmed that anxiety symptoms in preschoolers tend to cluster into the specific categories above and support the use of these different diagnoses in preschoolers rather than one non-specific “anxiety disorder” diagnosis 15,91,92 . Notably, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) are no longer classified as anxiety disorders and are not considered here.…”

The prevention of childhood anxiety and promotion of resilience among preschool-aged children: a universal school based trial

“…First, anxiety disorders are among the most prevalent psychiatric disorders in young children (Edwards, Rapee, Kennedy, & Spence, 2010;Egger & Angold, 2006) and have the potential to cause significant developmental disruption (McLoone, Hudson, & Rapee, 2006); therefore, enhancing our understanding of risk and protective factors is critical. Second, the prevention of early childhood anxiety represents a significantly neglected area of research, with limited attention to the effectiveness of child-based early intervention and prevention programmes.…”

“…The prevalence of anxiety disorders in a community sample of preschool-aged children (2 -5 years) has been reported as 9.5% (Edwards, Rapee, Kennedy, & Spence, 2010;Egger & Angold, 2006), with up to 28.8% of children developing an anxiety disorder during their lifetime (Kessler et al, 2005;Merikangas et al, 2010). If untreated, anxiety has the potential to cause significant disruption to a child's developmental trajectory due to the chronic course and low rates of remission (McLoone, Hudson, & Rapee, 2006).…”

Anxiety in Portuguese Pre-School Children – Adaptation of the Spence Pre-School Anxiety Scale

“…apresenta um conjunto de sintomas bem especificados que devem ser respondidos pelos progenitores de acordo com a frequência da sua presença numa escala de 4 pontos que varia entre "nunca" e "sempre". Os itens, consistentes com as categorias da DSM-IV, foram selecionados por peritos no tema tendo em conta a literatura, medidas de diagnóstico internacional e entrevistas clínicas (Edwards, Rapee, Kennedy & Spence, 2010). A validação original do instrumento (Spence at al, 2001) foi administrada a crianças entre os 3 e os 5 anos de idade e está organizada em cinco categorias de diagnóstico: Perturbação de ansiedade generalizada (PAG), perturbação de ansiedade social (PAS), ansiedade de separação (AS), perturbação obsessivo-compulsiva (POC) e medo de dano físico (MDF) as quais estão associadas num fator "ansiedade" superordenado responsável pelo covariância entre os fatores sugerindo que, em idades precoces, a ansiedade poderá ser um constructo unitário.…”