The Separation Anxiety Daily Diary: Child Version: Feasibility and Psychometric Properties

Abstract

This report describes the feasibility and psychometric properties of the child version of the Separation Anxiety Daily Diary (SADD-C) in 125 children (ages 7-14 years) from German-speaking areas of Switzerland. Children with separation anxiety disorder (SAD; n = 58), "other" anxiety disorders (n = 36), and healthy controls (n = 31) recorded the frequency of parent-child separations, along with associated anxiety, thoughts, reactions and subsequent parental responses. Compliance rates were modest, consistent with past research on self-report diaries with anxious children. The SADD-C was better at discriminating children with SAD from controls than "other anxious" children. The SADD-C demonstrated good convergent validity with maternal and child self-reported anxiety (Revised Child Manifest Anxiety Scale, Separation Anxiety Inventory) and perceived quality of life (Inventory for Quality of Life in Children and Adolescents). Results provide support for the SADD-C as an acceptable and valid method of assessing child symptoms and parent behavior on separation. Findings are discussed with regard to the clinical utility of the SADD-C and strategies to improve compliance.

Applying a developmental approach to quality of life assessment in children and adolescents with psychological disorders: challenges and guidelines

“…As shown in Table 2, studies examining the QL of children with the following diagnoses of mental disorder were included: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; n = 27) [18; 32-57]; autism spectrum disorder (n = 10) [58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67]; Gilles de la Tourette syndrome or other tic disorder (n = 6) [68][69][70][71][72][73]; bipolar spectrum disorders (n = 5) [74][75][76][77][78]; enuresis (n = 3) [79][80][81]; separation anxiety disorder and anxiety disorders (n = 3) [82][83][84]; eating disorders (n = 2) [85][86]; major depressive disorder (n = 2) [87][88]; conduct disorder (n = 1) [89]; obsessive-compulsive disorder (n = 1) [24]; and learning disabilities (n = 1) [90]. Five studies included diverse diagnoses of a mental disorder [13-14, 23, 91-92].…”

“…The reviewed studies were conducted in several countries, including the US (n = 26) [24, 32-33, 37, 43, 45-47, 51, 53, 59-60, 63-64, 67-68, 72-74, 76-78, 86-87, 89, 91]; Germany (n = 6) [40,44,48,54,79,92]; Switzerland (n = 3) [23, 82,84]; the Netherlands (n = 4) [13,38,52,66]; Australia (n = 3) [14,[49][50]; Turkey (n = 3) [41,61,80]; Brazil (n = 2) [39,83]; Spain (n = 2) [36,85]; Italy (n = 2) [70,71]; Taiwan (n = 2) [55][56]; Iran (n = 1) [42]; UK (n = 1) [69]; Norway (n = 1) [35]; Hungary (n = 1) [88]; France (n = 1) [58]; Canada (n = 1) [18]; Japan (n = 1) [81]; Greece (n = 1) [90]; and Mexico (n = 1) [57]. Four studies were conducted in two or more countries [34,62,65,75].…”

“…Only three (5%) studies used instruments developed to assess QL in adult populations (SF-36 and EuroQoL-5D) [66,[85][86]. Among the studies that used age-appropriate instruments, the majority assessed multiple dimensions of QL (n = 52; 83%) [13-14, 49,52,60,73,84,87,89], and two (3%) studies did not provide information about the instruments' dimensions used in the study [82][83].…”

Youth Psychopathology in Daily Life: Systematically Reviewed Characteristics and Potentials of Ecological Momentary Assessment Applications

“…In addition to providing data on compliance, part of the included studies specifically examined the feasibility and validity of the EMA applications that were used (i.e., in ASD [22][23][24], ADHD [25][26][27], mood disorders [28], anxiety disorders [29,30], and psychosis [31]). Based on these studies, we provide an initial review of the feasibility and validity of the EMA measures.…”

“…It was also noted that two of the three adolescents completed the sampling protocol, with the reason for non-completion being partly related to having to carry around the extra device for the sampling. The modest compliance rates of the mother and child event-based diaries on separations in the two studies in anxiety disorders were discussed in relation to possible forgetfulness, lack of motivation, or an inaccurate reflection of the mothers' and children's experiences in the preset diary options [29,30]. The authors suggested that reminder beeps may improve compliance with this application.…”