Young children have social worries too: validation of a brief parent report measure of social worries in children aged 4–8 years

Stuijfzand, S. and Dodd, H. F. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1446-5338 (2017) Young children have social worries too: validation of a brief parent report measure of social worries in children aged 4–8 years. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 50. pp. 87-93. ISSN 0887-6185 doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2017.05.008

Abstract/Summary

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Social Worries Anxiety Index for Young children (SWAIY), adapted from the Social Worries Questionnaire—Parent version (SWQ-P; Spence, 1995), as a measure of social anxiety in young children. 169 parents of children aged four to eight years from a community sample completed the SWAIY and a standardized measure of anxiety; the SWAIY was completed again two weeks later. Parents deemed the items appropriate and relevant to children of this age. The SWAIY demonstrated excellent ( > 0.80) internal consistency and a one-factor model. Test-retest reliability was strong (r = 0.87) and evidence of convergent validity (r > .50) was found. The study provides initial evidence for the validation of SWAIY as a measure of social anxiety in children aged four to eight years old. This questionnaire is ideal for investigating social anxiety over early childhood and the relationship between early social worries and later anxiety disorders.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/71836
Identification Number/DOI	10.1016/j.janxdis.2017.05.008
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Department of Psychology
Publisher	Elsevier
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