Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale – Parent (RCADS-Parent)

The Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale – Parent Version (RCADS-Parent) is a 47 item parent-reported questionnaire that measures symptoms of depression and anxiety in children and adolescents aged 8 – 18.

The RCADS-Parent consists of six subscales helpful in screening children for high prevalence disorders, including:

• separation anxiety disorder (SAD)
• social phobia (SP)
• generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
• panic disorder (PD)
• obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
• major depressive disorder (MDD).

The RCADS-Parent can be used to screen for and monitor symptoms of depression and anxiety.

The parallel version of the RCADS is the youth self-report version (RCADS-Child) which can be used in conjunction with the RCADS-Parent.

Validity and Reliability

The RCADS-Parent was validated in a community sample of 967 parents of children and adolescents (Ebesutani et al., 2011). The RCADS-Parent demonstrated high internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and good convergent/divergent validity. Factor analysis revealed that it also supported the 6 factor structure of the RCADS-Child; separation anxiety disorder, social phobia, generalised anxiety, panic disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and major depressive disorder.

The Ebesutani et al. (2011) study provides normative data for children between 8-18 years of age, and is used to derive percentile scores.

Interpretation

A Total Anxiety Scale score (sum of the 5 anxiety subscales) and a Total Internalizing Scale score (sum of all 6 subscales) are derived, with higher scores indicating increased symptom severity. In addition, scores are presented for each of the six subscales.

Scores are converted into percentiles and compared to the community sample (Ebesutani et al., 2011). It is important to note that the percentile scores compare scores to the entire cohort (aged between 8 -18). As scores vary significantly with age, derived percentile data should be interpreted with caution. A percentile score of 50 represents average levels of symptoms compared to the normative group, whereas a percentile above, for example, the 90th percentile indicates high levels of symptoms.

Sub-scales are computed by summing the following items:

• Separation Anxiety: items 5, 9, 17, 18, 33, 45, 46
• Social Phobia: items 4, 7, 8, 12, 20, 30, 32, 38, 43
• Generalized Anxiety: items 1, 13, 22, 27, 35, 37
• Panic Disorder: items 3, 14, 24, 26, 28, 34, 36, 39, 41
• Obsessive-Compulsive: items 10,16, 23, 31, 42, 44
• Major Depression: items 2, 6, 11, 15, 19, 21, 25, 29, 40, 47

Developer

Chorpita, B.F. & Spence, S.H. (1998).

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.

Reference

Ebesutani, C., Chorpita, B. F., Higa-McMillan, C. K., Nakamura, B. J., Regan, J., & Lynch, R. E. (2011). A psychometric analysis of the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scales–parent version in a school sample. Journal of abnormal child psychology, 39(2), 173–185. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-010-9460-8