Assessing Anxiety in Youth with the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-11-2013

Abstract

The present study examined the psychometric properties, including discriminant validity and clinical utility, of the youth self-report and parent-report forms of the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC) among youth with anxiety disorders. The sample included parents and youth (N = 488, 49.6% male) ages 7 to 17 who participated in the Child/Adolescent Anxiety Multimodal Study. Although the typical low agreement between parent and youth self-reports was found, the MASC evidenced good internal reliability across MASC subscales and informants. The main MASC subscales (i.e., Physical Symptoms, Harm Avoidance, Social Anxiety, and Separation/Panic) were examined. The Social Anxiety and Separation/Panic subscales were found to be significantly predictive of the presence and severity of social phobia and separation anxiety disorder, respectively. Using multiple informants improved the accuracy of prediction. The MASC subscales demonstrated good psychometric properties and clinical utilities in identifying youth with anxiety disorders.

Publication Title

Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology

PubMed ID

23845036

Comments

This article was published in Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, epub July 11, 2013.

The published version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2013.814541

Copyright © 2013 Informa UK Limited, an Informa Group Company

This document is currently not available here.

COinS