Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders Parent Version (SCARED Parent)

Abstract

The Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders Parent Version (SCARED Parent) is a 41-item, parent-reported psychometric scale designed to screen for the presence and severity of anxiety disorders in children and adolescents aged 8 to 18 years. Developed by Birmaher and colleagues (1997), this instrument assesses symptoms corresponding to several specific diagnostic categories outlined in the DSM-IV, including Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Separation Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, and Social Phobia. The SCARED Parent version closely mirrors the structure and content of the child self-report version and is primarily intended for use by clinicians to screen patients and monitor treatment outcomes.

Keywords

SCARED Parent, child anxiety, screening instrument, separation anxiety, social phobia, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, GAD, behavioral assessment, DSM-IV.

Authors

Boris Birmaher, Saroj Khetarpal, Melissa Cully, David Brent, Sandra McKenzie.

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Purpose

The primary purpose of the SCARED Parent scale is to provide a rapid, efficient screening tool for identifying potential anxiety disorders in children and adolescents (8–18 years) based on parental report. This is crucial in clinical settings where early detection and differentiation of specific anxiety types—such as panic disorder, social anxiety, or separation anxiety—are necessary for effective treatment planning.

Beyond initial screening, the scale is also utilized by clinicians to track symptomatic changes throughout the course of therapeutic intervention, serving as an outcome measure. The use of the parent version is often recommended alongside the child self-report version due to the acknowledgment of moderate, but not perfect, correlation between parent and child perceptions of anxiety symptoms.

Construct

The SCARED Parent measures a multi-dimensional construct of child anxiety, structured around five distinct factors that align with the diagnostic criteria established in the DSM-IV. The full scale captures the frequency and intensity of emotional and physiological symptoms related to various anxiety presentations.

The five core subscales measured by the 41 items are: 1) Somatic/Panic, 2) General Anxiety Disorder (GAD), 3) Separation Anxiety Disorder, 4) Social Phobia, and 5) School Avoidance/Phobia. By dividing the total score into these factors, the scale provides a nuanced profile of the child’s anxiety presentation rather than just a global measure.

Validity

The SCARED Parent version, particularly the 41-item iteration developed by Birmaher et al. (1999), has demonstrated good discriminate validity in clinical samples. In the original replication study involving 190 children and adolescents (45 anxiety diagnoses, 145 non-anxiety diagnoses), the total score and several factor scores successfully differentiated between children diagnosed with an anxiety disorder versus those with other clinical diagnoses.

Specifically, the total score, along with the Panic/Somatic and Separation Anxiety factor scores of the parent SCARED, showed significant capacity to distinguish between diagnostic groups. Further research has generally confirmed the validity of the SCARED across diverse clinical and community samples, supporting its utility as a diagnostic aid in pediatric psychology.

Reliability

The psychometric properties of the SCARED Parent have been confirmed across multiple studies, indicating strong reliability. Internal consistency is typically high for the total score and moderate to high for the individual subscales. While the exact reliability coefficients (e.g., Cronbach’s alpha) are not provided in the source text, the research by Birmaher et al. (1999) and subsequent meta-analyses (Hale et al., 2011) affirm its reliable measurement of anxiety symptoms.

A key finding regarding reliability involves the correlation between informants. Moderate correlations were consistently observed between the parent-reported version and the child self-reported version of the SCARED, suggesting that while parents and children capture the same underlying construct, their perspectives offer complementary, rather than identical, information about the child’s emotional state.

Factor Analysis

Initial factor analysis conducted during the scale’s development identified a robust five-factor structure for the 41 items. This structure was designed to map directly onto the specific anxiety diagnoses detailed in the contemporary diagnostic manual, the DSM-IV. The five factors are:

• Somatic/Panic symptoms (items related to physical manifestations and panic attacks).
• General Anxiety (items reflecting excessive worry about competence and future events).
• Separation Anxiety (items concerning distress when away from home or attachment figures).
• Social Phobia (items related to discomfort or nervousness in social or performance situations).
• School Avoidance/Phobia (items specific to fear and avoidance of the school setting).

Instrument

Test Type: Screening Instrument, Parent Report Questionnaire

Format: 41 items rated on a 3-point Likert scale (0=Not True or Hardly Ever True, 1=Somewhat True or Sometimes True, 2=Very True or Often True). Items are summed to create a total score and five subscale scores.

Language Available: Original English, widely translated and validated in many languages.

Population Group: Parents reporting on their children.

Age Group: Children and adolescents aged 8 to 18 years.

Population Details: Used in both clinical (outpatient mood/anxiety clinics) and community settings for general screening.

Test Methodology: Retrospective report by the parent covering the child’s symptoms over the last 3 months. A total score of 25 or more may indicate the presence of an anxiety disorder.

Keywords

child assessment, psychological scale, clinical screening, pediatric anxiety, parent report, psychopathology, emotional disorders.

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Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: N/A

Affiliation Email addresses: N/A

Correspondence Address: Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh (Affiliation listed in source material).

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The SCARED scale was initially developed in 1995 (Birmaher et al., 1995) with the seminal publication describing its psychometric properties appearing in 1997. The scale is generally available for non-commercial research and clinical use, often provided freely by the developers’ institutions, though specific licensing terms should be confirmed with the University of Pittsburgh or the authors for commercial applications.

Reference’s

Birmaher, B., Khetarpal, S., Cully, M., Brent, D., & McKenzie, S. (1995). Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh.

Birmaher, B., Khetarpal, S., Brent, D., Cully, M., Balach, L., Kaufman, J., & Neer, S. M. (1997). The Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED): Scale construction and psychometric characteristics. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 36(4), 545–553.

Birmaher, B., Brent, D. A., Chiappetta, L., Bridge, J., Monga, S., & Baugher, M. (1999). Psychometric properties of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED): a replication study. Journal of the American academy of child & adolescent psychiatry, 38(10), 1230-1236.

Hale WW, Crocetti E, Raaijmakers QA, Meeus WH. A meta‐analysis of the cross‐cultural psychometric properties of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED). Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 2011 Jan;52(1):80-90.

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Items of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders Parent Version (SCARED Parent)

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

Below is a list of sentences that describe how people feel. Read each phrase and decide if it is “Not True or Hardly Ever True” or “Somewhat True or Sometimes True” or “Very True or Often True” for your child. Then, for each statement, check the box that corresponds to the response that seems to describe your child for the last 3 months. Please respond to all statements as well as you can, even if some do not seem to concern your child.