Psychometric evaluation of the anxiety scale within the interRAI child and youth mental health instruments

Psychometric evaluation of the anxiety scale within the interRAI child and youth mental health instruments

Author:
Publication type: 
Journal Article
Year: 
2020
Journal/Series title: 
BMC Psychiatry
Volume number: 
20
Issue: 
390
Pages: 
10.1186
ISSN/ISBN: 
1471-244X (Electronic) 1471-244X (Linking)
Abstract: 

Abstract Background: With 10 to 20% of Canadian children suffering with mental illness, the importance of early identification and accurate assessment systems is clear. Unfortunately, many do not receive the mental health treatment necessary and wait-times for assessment can span up to a year. In response, the interRAI suite of assessments were designed to comprehensively assess early signs of mental health impairments in children from birth to 18 years. Methods: This study assesses the psychometric properties of the Anxiety Scale and addresses the identification of anxiety within children diagnosed with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD); a commonly underrepresented sample in mental health psychometric studies. Data was collected from children aged 4–18 years in three different samples. Results: Results indicated reliable internal consistency and factor structure, as well as moderate-to-strong convergent validity. Conclusions: We conclude that the Anxiety Scale exhibits psychometric qualities which demonstrate its clinical utility for use within a child sample, as well as in children with IDD. The findings provide support to a larger body of research which show consistent psychometric rigour of the interRAI measures.