Measurement Invariance of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) across Ethnicity, Age, and Sex among Youth with Depression

Many youth struggle with anxiety disorders, which are often debilitating and co-occurring with depression. To ensure accurate assessment of and intervention for youth anxiety, it is critical that clinicians have access to valid anxiety measurement tools. The Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) is a frequently used measure to address anxiety, but its use has not been validated for diverse populations. To determine the validity of the SCARED for a wider range of youth, the measure was assessed in distinct groups based on age, sex, and ethnicity in TX-YDSRN youth. SCARED measurement performance was consistent across groups upon test. Younger children and females tended to endorse higher levels of anxiety compared to older children and males, respectively. These findings support the use of SCARED in more diverse populations of youth based on age, sex, and ethnicity, expanding clinicians' ability to measure youth anxiety.