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Preschool Anxiety Scale
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About Preschool Anxiety Scale
Scale Name
Preschool Anxiety Scale
Author Details
Susan H. Spence
Translation Availability
Not Sure
Background/Description
The Preschool Anxiety Scale (PAS) emerged from a growing recognition of anxiety’s impact on young children’s lives. In the late 1990s, Dr. Susan H. Spence, a leading researcher in child anxiety, spearheaded its development alongside colleagues like Joan Donovan and Christopher Gale. Their goal was to create a reliable tool for identifying and understanding anxiety in preschoolers, who often struggle to express their distress verbally.
Filling a Gap: Existing anxiety measures were geared towards older children and adults, leaving a gap in assessing younger minds. The PAS addressed this need by tailoring its language and format to preschoolers’ cognitive and emotional development.
Structure and Scoring: The scale comprises 28 simple statements about behaviors and emotions frequently associated with anxiety in preschoolers. Parents or caregivers rate the frequency of each statement on a five-point scale, generating a total score reflecting overall anxiety severity. Additionally, the PAS provides scores on six sub-scales tapping into specific areas like separation anxiety, social anxiety, and generalized worry.
Benefits and Applications: The PAS offers several benefits:
- Early identification: Early detection of anxiety allows for prompt intervention and support, preventing potential long-term consequences.
- Monitoring progress: The scale’s sensitivity to change in symptoms helps track the effectiveness of treatment and guide decisions.
- Clinical guidance: By providing detailed information about various anxiety types, the PAS informs therapeutic planning and strategies.
Limitations and Use: While invaluable, the PAS is not a diagnostic tool. It serves as a screening instrument that, in conjunction with a clinical interview and other assessments, helps professionals understand a child’s anxiety profile and make informed decisions.
Administration, Scoring and Interpretation
- Who completes the scale? The PAS is intended to be completed by a parent or primary caregiver who has extensive knowledge of the child’s behavior and emotions. Ideally, this individual should spend significant time with the child in various settings.
- Setting and materials: Choose a quiet, distraction-free environment where the caregiver can focus on completing the scale without interruptions. Have a copy of the PAS form and a pen readily available.
- Instructions and clarification: Briefly explain the purpose of the PAS to the caregiver. Provide clear instructions on how to complete the form, emphasizing the importance of honest and objective responses based on their observations of the child’s behavior. Encourage them to ask any questions or seek clarification if needed.
- Reading items: Each item on the PAS consists of a short statement describing a particular behavior or emotion related to anxiety. The caregiver reads each item carefully and considers how often they observed this behavior in their child over the past month.
- Rating frequency: Using the five-point scale (0 = Not at all true, 4 = Very often true), the caregiver circles the number that best reflects the frequency of the behavior in their child. Encourage them to use their judgment based on actual observations, not assumptions or biases.
- Open-ended item: The final item on the PAS is open-ended and asks if the child has experienced any recent traumatic events. If so, the caregiver briefly describes the event without going into excessive detail. This information can provide context for interpreting the anxiety scores.
Reliability and Validity
The PAS has undergone multiple studies to assess its reliability and validity, making it a widely accepted tool for measuring anxiety in preschoolers. Here’s a breakdown of the key findings:
- Internal consistency: High internal consistency has been reported, with Cronbach’s alpha values exceeding 0.90 in various studies. This indicates that the items on the scale consistently measure the same underlying construct (anxiety).
- Test-retest reliability: Moderate test-retest reliability has been observed, with correlation coefficients around 0.60 over a period of several months. This means that scores tend to remain relatively stable over time, confirming the scale’s consistency.
- Inter-rater reliability: Inter-rater reliability, when parents and teachers independently rate the child, has been shown to be moderate to good, suggesting that different observers can provide similar assessments.
- Content validity: The items on the PAS are clearly linked to different aspects of anxiety in preschoolers, demonstrating strong content validity. They cover situations and behaviors commonly associated with anxiety in this age group.
- Criterion validity: The PAS scores have been found to correlate positively with other measures of anxiety and negatively with measures of emotional well-being, supporting its criterion validity. This means the scale aligns with other established indicators of anxiety and emotional states.
- Construct validity: The PAS distinguishes between different types of anxiety (generalized, separation, social, etc.) through its sub-scales, confirming its construct validity. It captures the multifaceted nature of anxiety in young children.
Limitations:
- Self-report bias: As the scale relies on caregiver reports, potential biases in their observations or interpretations should be considered.
- Cultural sensitivity: The cultural appropriateness of the items may vary, necessitating adjustments for diverse populations.
- Diagnostic tool: The PAS is not a diagnostic tool and cannot definitively diagnose anxiety disorders. It should be used as part of a comprehensive assessment by a qualified professional.
Available Versions
28-Items
Reference
Spence, S. H., Rapee, R., McDonald, C., & Ingram, M. (2001). The structure of anxiety symptoms among preschoolers. Behaviour research and therapy, 39(11), 1293-1316.
Important Link
Scale File:
Frequently Asked Questions
What is it?
Tool to assess anxiety in 2 ½ – 6 ½ year olds.
Who uses it?
Parents/caregivers, professionals like psychologists.
What does it measure?
Overall anxiety & specific types like separation, social.
How does it work?
28 questions rated on 5-point scale, generating scores.
Benefits?
Early identification, monitoring progress, informing treatment.
Limitations?
Not diagnostic, caregiver bias possible.
Reliable? Valid?
Yes, high internal consistency, good criterion validity.
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