DSM-IV-defined anxiety disorder symptoms in a middle-childhood-aged group of Malaysian children using the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale

Introduction Pediatric anxiety disorders are the most common mental health disorders in the middle-childhood age group. The purpose of this study is to assess anxiety disorder symptoms, as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV), in a large community sample of low socioeconomic level rural children and to investigate some of the psychometric properties (internal consistency, construct and convergent validity and items rated as often or always experienced) of the Malay version of the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale - Child version (SCAS-C). Method Six hundred children aged 9-11 and 424 of their parents completely answered the child or parent versions of the SCAS. Results Results indicated that the internal reliability of subscales were moderate to adequate. Significant correlations between child and parent reports supported the measure's concurrent validity. Additionally, anxiety levels in this Malaysian sample were lower than among South-African children and higher than among their Western peers. There were both similarities and differences between symptom items reported as often or always experienced by Malaysian students and by children from other cultures. Confirmatory factor analysis provided evidence of the existence of five inter-correlated factors for anxiety disorders based on SCAS-C. Conclusion Although some of the instrument's psychometric properties deviated from those observed in some other countries, it nevertheless appears to be useful for assessing childhood anxiety symptoms in this country.

引言：儿童焦虑障碍是学龄中期儿童群体中最常见的精神健康障碍。本研究旨在针对大型社区样本中的低社会经济地位乡村儿童群体，评估符合《精神障碍诊断与统计手册（第四版）》（Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition，DSM-IV）定义的焦虑障碍症状，并探究马来语版斯宾塞儿童焦虑量表-儿童版（Spence Children's Anxiety Scale - Child version，SCAS-C）的部分心理测量学属性（内部一致性、结构效度与会聚效度，以及被报告为"经常"或"总是"出现的条目）。方法：共有600名年龄在9至11岁之间的儿童及其424名家长完整填写了SCAS的儿童版或家长版量表。结果：分析结果显示，各分量表的内部信度处于中等至良好水平。儿童与家长报告结果间存在显著相关，证实了该量表的同时效度。此外，本马来西亚样本的焦虑水平低于南非儿童，却高于西方同龄群体。马来西亚学生与其他文化背景儿童报告为"经常"或"总是"出现的症状条目既存在共性，也存在差异。验证性因子分析结果表明，基于SCAS-C可提取出五个相互关联的焦虑障碍因子。结论：尽管该量表的部分心理测量学属性与其他部分国家的研究结果存在偏差，但它仍可有效用于评估本国儿童的焦虑障碍症状。