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Sensitivity and Specificity of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED): A Community-Based Study

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Abstract

The aim of this cross-sectional community-based study was to examine the sensitivity and specificity of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) to the diagnosis of anxiety disorders (AD). Participants were 119 students aged 9–18. Psychiatric diagnoses were assessed by a psychiatrist throughout a structural clinical interview (K-SADS-PL). Forty-four participants had positive diagnosis for at least one AD. The total score of the SCARED significantly differentiated anxious from non-anxious children with an optimal cutoff point of 22 (sensitivity = 81.8 %; specificity = 52.0 %). SCARED subscales of social phobia and separation anxiety disorder, but not generalized anxiety disorder, revealed better discrimination proprieties than total scores to screen for that specific disorder (p < .05). Both total and specific SCARED scores presented moderate sensitivity and specificity for detecting AD in a community sample. Investigators interested in screening for specific AD, rather than the group of AD, may benefit from using the specific subscales.

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Acknowledgments

Sources of funding were the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, CNPq), the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Level Personnel (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, CAPES), and the Fundo de Incentivo à Pesquisa do Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (FIPE-HCPA). We thank all the patients and families involved in this research project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Psychological Studies on At Risk Populations (CEP-Rua), Postgraduate Program in Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, 2600 Ramiro Barcelos, Room 104, Porto Alegre, RS, 90035-003, Brazil

    Diogo Araújo DeSousa

  2. Anxiety Disorders Program for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (PROTAIA), Postgraduate Program in Medical Sciences: Psychiatry, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (HCPA), Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Giovanni Abrahão Salum, Luciano Rassier Isolan & Gisele Gus Manfro

  3. National Institute of Development Psychiatry for Children and Adolescents (INPD), Porto Alegre, Brazil

    Giovanni Abrahão Salum & Gisele Gus Manfro

Authors
  1. Diogo Araújo DeSousa
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  2. Giovanni Abrahão Salum
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  3. Luciano Rassier Isolan
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  4. Gisele Gus Manfro
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Correspondence to Diogo Araújo DeSousa.

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DeSousa, D.A., Salum, G.A., Isolan, L.R. et al. Sensitivity and Specificity of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED): A Community-Based Study. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 44, 391–399 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-012-0333-y

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