Using North American Instruments with British Samples: Norms for the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale in the UK

Abstract

The Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale is a widely used assessment tool, but it is questionable whether the North American norms are applicable to a British population. The scale was administered to 575 English children aged 8–12 years. Means were computed by age and gender and compared to the published North American norms. English males reported less anxiety than American males in most age groups, while 8‐year‐old English girls reported less anxiety than 8‐year‐old American girls. The language used in the Scale caused some difficulties, suggesting that the Scale might be better used in a structured interview rather than as a self‐completion questionnaire.

Physical and emotional development, appetite and body image in adolescents who failed to thrive as infants

“…The children were asked to rate their own appetites, comparing them with those of their best friend and their same and opposite sex siblings, and their carer (usually their mother) was asked independently to make the same ratings in respect of their child. Self‐esteem, anxiety and depression symptoms were assessed directly using the child as the informant with the Self‐perception Profile for Children (Harter, 1982; Hoare, Elton, Greer, & Kerley, 1993), the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (Mertin, Dibnah, Crosbie, & Bulkley, 2001; Reynolds & Richmond, 1978) and the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (Kent, Vostanis, & Feehan, 1997). In addition the child's carer (usually the mother) was asked to complete the parent's form of the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (MFQ‐P; the child's version is the MFQ‐C).…”

Anxious Children's Ability to Generate Alternative Attributions for Ambiguous Situations

“…The Total Anxiety score is converted to a T-score with a mean of 50 and standard deviation of 10. Mertin, Dibnah, Crosbie and Bulkley (2001) found that British children scored significantly lower than the American normative sample. They provided norms for children aged 8-12 years, reporting the mean for 8-year-old girls as 13.69 (SD = 6.53) and boys as 11.13 (SD = 5.62), and recommended administering the measure as a structured interview.…”