Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale – Child (SCAS- Child)

Name: Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale – Child (SCAS- Child)
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Author: mohammad looti

mohammad looti

Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale – Child (SCAS- Child)

Anxiety Children

Table of Contents

Instructions:

Please tap to button to show how often each of these things happen to you. There are no right or wrong answers.

		Never	Sometimes	Often	Always
1	I worry about things	0	1	2	3
2	I am scared of the dark	0	1	2	3
3	When I have a problem, I get a funny feeling in my stomach	0	1	2	3
4	I feel afraid	0	1	2	3
5	I would feel afraid of being on my own at home	0	1	2	3
6	I feel scared when I have to take a test	0	1	2	3
7	I feel afraid if I have to use public toilets or bathrooms	0	1	2	3
8	I worry about being away from my parents	0	1	2	3
9	I feel afraid that I will make a fool of myself in front of people	0	1	2	3
10	I worry that I will do badly at my school work	0	1	2	3
11	I am popular amongst other kids my own age	0	1	2	3
12	I worry that something awful will happen to someone in my family	0	1	2	3
13	I suddenly feel as if I can’t breathe when there is no reason for this	0	1	2	3
14	I have to keep checking that I have done things right (like the switch is off, or the door is locked)	0	1	2	3


15	I feel scared if I have to sleep on my own	0	1	2	3
16	I have trouble going to school in the mornings because I feel nervous or afraid	0	1	2	3

		Never	Sometimes	Often	Always
17	I am good at sports	0	1	2	3
18	I am scared of dogs	0	1	2	3
19	I can’t seem to get bad or silly thoughts out of my head	0	1	2	3
20	When I have a problem, my heart beats really fast	0	1	2	3
21	I suddenly start to tremble or shake when there is no reason for this	0	1	2	3
22	I worry that something bad will happen to me	0	1	2	3
23	I am scared of going to the doctors or dentists	0	1	2	3
24	When I have a problem, I feel shaky	0	1	2	3
25	I am scared of being in high places or lifts (elevators)	0	1	2	3
26	I am a good person	0	1	2	3
27	I have to think of special thoughts to stop bad things from happening (like numbers or words)	0	1	2	3


28	I feel scared if I have to travel in the car, or on a Bus or a train	0	1	2	3
29	I worry what other people think of me	0	1	2	3
30	I am afraid of being in crowded places (like shopping centres, the movies, buses, busy playgrounds)	0	1	2	3


31	I feel happy	0	1	2	3
32	All of a sudden I feel really scared for no reason at all	0	1	2	3
33	I am scared of insects or spiders	0	1	2	3
34	I suddenly become dizzy or faint when there is no reason for this	0	1	2	3
35	I feel afraid if I have to talk in front of my class	0	1	2	3
36	My heart suddenly starts to beat too quickly for no reason	0	1	2	3

	Never	Sometimes	Often	Always
I worry that I will suddenly get a scared feeling when there is nothing to be afraid of	0	1	2	3
I like myself	0	1	2	3
I am afraid of being in small closed places, like tunnels or small rooms	0	1	2	3
I have to do some things over and over again (like washing my hands, cleaning or putting things in a certain order)	0	1	2	3
I get bothered by bad or silly thoughts or pictures in my mind	0	1	2	3
I have to do some things in just the right way to stop bad things happening	0	1	2	3
I am proud of my school work	0	1	2	3
I would feel scared if I had to stay away from home overnight	0	1	2	3
Is there something else that you are really afraid of?
0 Yes 0 No
If you are afraid of something else please write down what it is. How often are you afraid of this thing?

Description

The SCAS Child Version is a 45-item self-report scale used to assess severity of anxiety symptoms in children aged 8-15 years. This measure assesses six domains of anxiety which constitute six subscales: separation anxiety, social phobia, obsessive compulsive problems, panic/agoraphobia, generalised anxiety/overanxious symptoms and fears of physical injury. The SCAS Child Version is not designed to be used as a diagnostic tool in isolation, but it can be used in clinical and non-clinical settings to evaluate the impact of anxiety interventions over time.

Validity and Reliability

The SCAS Child Version has been validated in a sample of Australian children (N = 218) by Spence (1998). The SCAS demonstrated convergent validity with other measures of child anxiety, and discriminant validity with a measure of child depressive symptoms. The same study also showed significantly higher SCAS scores on all six subscales among clinically anxious children than those in a non-clinical control group. For comprehensive information visit the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale website at: www.scaswebsite.com

Interpretation

Scores consist of a total raw score (range from 0 to 114) and six sub-scale scores, with higher scores indicating greater severity of anxiety symptoms. These scores are also converted into percentiles based on age and gender from normative samples reported on www.scaswebsite.com. A percentile score more than 84 for any subscale score or the total SCAS score indicates clinically significant anxiety symptoms. Sub-scales are computed by summing the following items: Separation anxiety 5, 8, 12, 15, 16, 44 Social phobia 6, 7, 9, 10, 29, 35 Obsessive compulsive 14, 19, 27, 40, 41, 42 Panic/agoraphobia 13, 21, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 37, 39 Physical Injury 2, 18, 23, 25, 33 Generalised anxiety 1, 3, 4, 20, 22, 24 Items that are not scored in either the total score or the sub-scale scores are: 11, 17, 26, 31, 38, 43, 45 and 46. They are not scored because they did not meet sufficient psychometric requirements.

Developer

Spence, S.H. (1997). Structure of anxiety symptoms among children: A confirmatory factor-analytic study. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 106(2), 280-297.

Number Of Questions

46

References

Spence, S.H. (1998). A measure of anxiety symptoms among children. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 36 (5), 545-566.

Spence, S.H., Barrett, P.M., & Turner, C.M. (2003). Psychometric properties of the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale with young adolescents. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 17(6), 605-625. http://www.scaswebsite.com/

Developer Reference:

Spence, S.H. (1997). Structure of anxiety symptoms among children: A confirmatory factor- analytic study. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 106(2), 280-297.

Cite this article

APAMLACHICAGOHARVARDIEEEAMA

mohammad looti (2026). Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale – Child (SCAS- Child). PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES. Retrieved from https://scales.arabpsychology.com/s/spence-childrens-anxiety-scale-child-scas-child/

mohammad looti. "Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale – Child (SCAS- Child)." PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES, 2 Apr. 2026, https://scales.arabpsychology.com/s/spence-childrens-anxiety-scale-child-scas-child/.

mohammad looti. "Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale – Child (SCAS- Child)." PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES, 2026. https://scales.arabpsychology.com/s/spence-childrens-anxiety-scale-child-scas-child/.

mohammad looti (2026) 'Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale – Child (SCAS- Child)', PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES. Available at: https://scales.arabpsychology.com/s/spence-childrens-anxiety-scale-child-scas-child/.

[1] mohammad looti, "Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale – Child (SCAS- Child)," PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES, vol. X, no. Y, ص Z-Z, April, 2026.

mohammad looti. Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale – Child (SCAS- Child). PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES. 2026;vol(issue):pages.

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