Revised Children’s Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS)

Abstract

The Revised Children’s Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS), developed by Chorpita, Yim, Moffitt, Umemoto, & Francis (2000), is a 47-item self-report measure designed to assess the frequency and severity of symptoms related to anxiety and depression in youth aged 8 to 18 years. The instrument is comprised of six distinct scales, five of which cover specific anxiety disorders (Separation Anxiety Disorder, Social Phobia, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), alongside a scale dedicated to Major Depressive Disorder. The structure of the RCADS aligns closely with the diagnostic criteria outlined in the DSM-IV, providing a standardized tool for symptom assessment. Responses are rated on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from “never” to “always.” The measure is available in both youth self-report and parent-report forms, as well as a short-form version (RCADS-25; Ebesutani et al., 2012). Interpretation relies on standardized T-scores, where scores greater than 65 are considered borderline clinically significant and scores exceeding 75 are deemed clinically significant.

Keywords

RCADS, Children’s Anxiety Scale, depression, anxiety, DSM-IV, self-report, psychometrics, youth assessment, clinical psychology.

Authors

Bruce F. Chorpita, L. Yim, C. Moffitt, L. A. Umemoto, S. E. Francis.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the RCADS is to provide a reliable and comprehensive psychometric tool for screening and assessing the frequency of anxiety and depressive symptoms in children and adolescents (ages 8–18). It serves as a valuable clinical aid for youth suspected of having an anxiety disorder or major depressive disorder, offering dimensional symptom ratings that closely map onto established DSM diagnostic categories.

The scale is particularly useful because it integrates the measurement of both anxiety and depressive symptoms within a single instrument, allowing for the separate evaluation of five anxiety sub-types alongside major depression. The resulting T-scores facilitate clinical decision-making, as scores reflect symptom severity relative to individuals who meet formal diagnostic criteria for the respective disorders.

Construct

The RCADS measures the psychological construct of internalizing psychopathology, focusing specifically on the symptomatic dimensions of anxiety and major depression as operationalized by the DSM-IV. The scale is partially a revision of the Spence’s Children’s Anxiety Scale (SCAS; 1997) and was developed in Hawaii, United States.

The instrument is divided into six highly specific subscales, designed to align with distinct diagnostic categories:

• Separation Anxiety Disorder
• Social Phobia (Social Anxiety Disorder)
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder
• Panic Disorder
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
• Major Depressive Disorder

Validity

The RCADS demonstrates strong psychometric properties, including good convergent validity. This is supported by significant correlations with other well-established measures of child psychopathology, such as the Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS; Reynolds & Richmond, 1978) and the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI). Furthermore, the scale’s results correlate favorably with dimensional ratings obtained through structured clinical interviews (Chorpita et al., 2005).

The measure has also shown considerable cross-cultural validity. It has been successfully validated in clinical and school-based samples across numerous international settings, confirming its utility with youth from different cultural backgrounds. Successful validation studies have been documented in countries including Australia (de Ross, Gullone & Chorpita, 2002), Denmark (Esbjorn et al., 2010), the Netherlands (Kosters et al., 2015), and Spain (Sandin et al., 2009).

Reliability

The RCADS maintains good overall internal consistency, reflecting that items within the subscales measure the same underlying construct. In clinical populations, Cronbach alpha values are robust, ranging from 0.78 for the Social Anxiety Disorder subscale up to 0.88 for the Panic Disorder subscale (Chorpita, Moffitt & Gray, 2005). Acceptable internal consistency has also been confirmed in general population samples (Chorpita et al., 2000).

The scale also exhibits favorable test-retest reliability for most dimensions when administered to community samples of school children and adolescents. Specifically, the Social Phobia scale demonstrated the highest reliability coefficient (0.80) over time, while the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder scale generally displayed the lowest, though still acceptable, coefficient (0.65) (Chorpita et al., 2000).

Factor Analysis

The structural model of the RCADS has been rigorously tested using advanced statistical methods. A study by Chorpita et al. (2005) employed confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to evaluate competing models for the scale’s structure. The results indicated that the hypothesized six-factor model provided an adequate fit to the data.

This finding confirms the structural integrity and theoretical framework of the RCADS, demonstrating that the six distinct subscales (five anxiety and one depression) are indeed separable dimensions. The six-factor model was found to be statistically superior to both a simpler one-factor model and a two-factor model, supporting the clinical utility of scoring the specific anxiety and depressive components separately.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report questionnaire / Clinical screening tool

Format: 47 items utilizing a 4-point Likert scale (ranging from “never” to “always”). Includes a youth self-report form, a parent-report form, and a short form (RCADS-25).

Language Available: English (Original), Spanish, Chinese, French, Danish, Dutch, and others due to extensive international validation.

Population Group: Youth (Children and Adolescents)

Age Group: 8 to 18 years

Population Details: The scale is standardized for students in grade 3 and above. T-Score conversions have not been developed for children younger than grade three, requiring clinical judgment for interpreting raw scores in this younger population. Used in both clinical and community/school-based samples.

Test Methodology: Can be scored manually or through specialized scoring software provided by the authors. Results are interpreted using standardized T-scores to determine clinical significance.

Keywords

Separation Anxiety, Social Phobia, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, psychometrics, self-report, standardized assessment.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in source content.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not provided in source content.

Correspondence Address: Not provided in source content.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The RCADS is available publicly and free of cost for educational and professional purposes. The original scale and resources can be accessed via the UCLA Childfirst website: www.childfirst.ucla.edu/resources.html.

Permission is required from the authors if the tool is to be utilized for formal research purposes.

Test Year (Original Publication): 2000 (Chorpita et al.).

Reference’s

1. Chorpita, B. F., Yim, L., Moffitt, C., Umemoto, L. A., & Francis, S. E. (2000). Assessment of symptoms of DSM-IV anxiety and depression in children: A revised child anxiety and depression scale. Behaviour research and therapy, 38(8), 835-855.
2. Chorpita, B. F., Moffitt, C. E., & Gray, J. (2005). Psychometric properties of the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale in a clinical sample. Behaviour research and therapy, 43(3), 309-322.
3. de Ross, R. L., Gullone, E., & Chorpita, B. F. (2002). The revised child anxiety and depression scale: a psychometric investigation with Australian youth. Behaviour Change, 19(02), 90-101.
4. Ebesutani, C., Reise, S. P., Chorpita, B. F., Ale, C., Regan, J., Young, J., … & Weisz, J. R. (2012). The Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale-Short Version: Scale reduction via exploratory bifactor modeling of the broad anxiety factor. Psychological Assessment, 24(4), 833.
5. Esbjørn, B. H., Sømhovd, M. J., Turnstedt, C., & Reinholdt-Dunne, M. L. (2012). Assessing the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS) in a national sample of Danish youth aged 8–16 years. PLoS One, 7(5), e37339.
6. Kösters, M. P., Chinapaw, M. J., Zwaanswijk, M., van der Wal, M. F., & Koot, H. M. (2015). Structure, reliability, and validity of the revised child anxiety and depression scale (RCADS) in a multi-ethnic urban sample of Dutch children. BMC psychiatry, 15(1), 132.
7. Reynolds, C. R., & Richmond, B. O. (1978). What I think and feel: A revised measure of children’s manifest anxiety. Journal of abnormal child psychology, 6(2), 271-280.
8. Sandín, B., Valiente, R. M., & Chorot, P. (2009). RCADS: evaluación de los síntomas de los trastornos de ansiedad y depresión en niñosy adolescentes. Revista de Psicopatología y Psicología Clínica, 14(3), 193-206.
9. Spence, S. H. (1998). A measure of anxiety symptoms among children. Behaviour research and therapy, 36(5), 545-566.

Items of the Revised Children’s Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS)

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

The original source content did not provide the specific 47 items of the Revised Children’s Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS).

The scale measures symptoms across six domains, including five specific anxiety disorders (Separation Anxiety Disorder, Social Phobia, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and Major Depressive Disorder. Items are rated on a 4-point Likert scale.