Making high-quality measures available in diverse contexts—The psychometric properties of the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale in a Norwegian sample

Abstract

Objectives: Recent initiatives have recommended the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS) for use in research and as patient-reported outcome in health care globally. We aimed to investigate, for the first time, whether the psychometric properties of the anxiety and depression youth self-report measures, RCADS-47 and RCADS-25, generalize to a Norwegian setting. Methods: We examined gender and age differences in symptomatology among 592 children (mean age 10.7 years), and conducted a psychometric investigation of the internal reliability, structural validity, measurement invariance and convergent validity of the RCADS-47 and RCADS-25 youth versions. Results: Girls reported higher levels of anxious and depressive symptoms than boys, but no age differences were observed. Reliability coefficients for the RCADS-47 and RCADS-25 scales indicated good internal consistency. Structural validity for RCADS-47 and RCADS-25 was supported by confirmatory factor analyses results. For both measures, strong gender-based measurement invariance was present. Convergent validity of the RCADS-47 and RCADS-25 with other well-established self-report measures for anxiety (Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children) and depression (The Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire) was supported. Conclusion: The RCADS-47 and RCADS-25 youth versions are valid and reliable instruments for measuring symptoms of anxiety and depression in a Norwegian setting. The results add to the evidence supporting RCADS's cross-cultural validity.