Spanish version of the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale in Uruguay: reliability and concurrent validity.

Abstract

This study of the reliability and concurrent validity of the Spanish version of the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS) required givin this version and the Spanish adaptation of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (5) in a counter%alanced design, to 108 students (80 girls, 28 boys) at a school in Montevideo. Youth were distributed over grades as indicated: 35 in Grade 9, 27 in Grade 10, 26 in Grade 11, and 20 in Grade 12; subjects ranged in a e from 16 to 20 yr. he R C ~ S (1) is a 37-item self-report instrument to assess the level anbnature of trait anxiety of chlldren and adolescents from 6 to 19 yr. of a e Each item is answered Yes or No and the Total Anxiety is based on 28 items, divicfed into three anxiety subscales: Physiological (10 items), Worry (11 items), and Social Concerns (7 items). The remaining nine items (Lie scale) suggest social desirabibty. The factor structure of this Spanish version (2) was quite similar to that for American children (1). The state-trait inventory (5) has two 20item scales rated on 4-point scales, to assess state and trait anxiet of adolescents (Grades 916) and adults. The inventory was chosen as a criterion measure Lased on substantial research which supports the scale's reliability and validity (4, 5). The RCMAS Total Anxiety and State-Trait Anxiety scores were analyzed in separate analyses of variance, with sex and g a d e as independent variables. For the RCMAS Total Anxiety the only significant effect was sex (F ,,,,,, = 6.92, p .05). Finally, the STAI-Trait scale scores did not correlate significantly with those on the STAI-State scale. Because psychometric properties are appropriate, this Spanish version of the RCMAS is suitable only for measuring trait anxiety.