Psychometric properties of the school anxiety scale—Teacher report (SAS-TR)

Abstract

This paper describes the development and psychometric evaluation of a teacher report scale of anxiety in children. After initial pilot, the School Anxiety Scale—Teacher Report (SAS-TR) was reduced to 16 items which were answered on a 4-point scale. Psychometric evaluation was conducted on 240 community and 140 anxiety disordered children aged 5–12 years. Factor analysis identified two subscales reflecting social and generalized anxiety. The SAS-TR was found to have acceptable internal consistency, appropriate relationships with other teacher report scales, and was positively correlated with parent report of child anxiety. Gender and age effects on total and subscale scores were not evident. Clinical utility was evident with the scale discriminating between the community and clinical groups, correctly classifying a large proportion of anxiety disordered children and showing sensitivity to changes in anxiety with treatment. The SAS-TR complements existing measures and can be used within a multi-informant approach to the assessment of child anxiety.