Using North American Instruments with British Samples: Norms for the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale in the UK

Abstract

The Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale is a widely used assessment tool, but it is questionable whether the North American norms are applicable to a British population. The scale was administered to 575 English children aged 8–12 years. Means were computed by age and gender and compared to the published North American norms. English males reported less anxiety than American males in most age groups, while 8-year-old English girls reported less anxiety than 8-year-old American girls. The language used in the Scale caused some difficulties, suggesting that the Scale might be better used in a structured interview rather than as a self-completion questionnaire.