Measuring Anxiety in Children: The Importance of Separate Mother and Father Reports

Background Previous research suggests that it is important to use parental reports when
assessing children’s anxiety, but it remains unclear to what extent there are differences
between mothers’ and fathers’ scores and whether these potential differences have any
repercussions for the psychometric properties of the scale being used.
Objective This study was conducted to investigate parental differences on the Parent
version of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders-Revised (SCAREDRP),
a rating scale for measuring child anxiety symptoms. The second aim was to reexamine
the reliability and validity of the SCARED-RP, in light of these possible
differences.
Methods The SCARED-RP and the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) were administered
to parents of clinically anxious children (n = 81), and control children (n = 108).
All children (n = 189) completed the SCARED-R.
Results Significant correlations between mother and father reports were found within the
clinically anxious sample. Mothers showed significantly more correspondence with their
children in the control group than fathers. The SCARED-RP internal consistency on total
scale was excellent (mothers: .94; fathers: .94) and moderate to good for all subscales
(from .66 Situational-Environmental Phobia to .93 Animal Phobia). The SCARED-RP
differentiated well between clinically anxious and control children (mother and father
data). The concurrent validity was supported by strong correlations with the CBCL anxious-depressed
scale.
Conclusion Differences between mother and father reports suggest the importance of
obtaining information from both parents separately. Furthermore, the SCARED-RP is a
useful instrument for assessing children’s anxiety disorder symptoms in clinical and
research settings.