Psychometric properties of the revised children’s anxiety and depression scale (RCADS) for autistic youth without co-occurring intellectual disability
Open accessAbstract
Autistic youth often present with comorbid anxiety and depression yet there is a dearth of validated assessment tools. The Revised Children’s Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS) assesses internalizing symptoms but there is little psychometric data in autistic youth. Treatment-seeking autistic youth with anxiety or obsessive-compulsive symptoms (N = 74; age 6-14 years), and caregivers, were administered the RCADS-Parent, RCADS-Child, and assessments of internalizing, externalizing symptoms and social impairment indicative of autism. RCADS-Parent and RCADS-Child total anxiety scores demonstrated excellent internal consistency, and the six subscales demonstrated acceptable-to-good internal consistency. The RCADS-Child and Parent total anxiety scores were weakly correlated, and neither child age nor gender altered the strength of this association. Convergent validity was supported by moderate-to-strong correlations with clinician and parent-reported anxiety symptoms. Support for divergent validity was mixed. Results provide support for the RCADS-Parent and RCADS-Child as reliable, valid measures of internalizing symptoms in autistic youth.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The RCADS-P/C has been validated for use with autistic youth.
“The RCADS-P/C has been validated for use with autistic youth (Kaat & Lecavalier, 2015; Khalfe et al., 2023).”
From Community-guided, autism-adapted group cognitive behavioral therapy for depression in autistic youth (CBT-DAY): Preliminary feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy (2024) · cites this paper as Khalfe et al., 2023
The Abstract reports support for the RCADS-Parent and RCADS-Child as reliable, valid measures of internalizing symptoms in autistic youth. The study, however, examined treatment-seeking youth aged 6–14 with anxiety or obsessive-compulsive symptoms and without co-occurring intellectual disability; it does not establish validity for autistic youth generally. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
The PHQ-9: Validity of a brief depression severity measure
Kroenke, K., Spitzer, R. L., & Williams, J. B. W. (2001) · Journal of General Internal Medicine · doi:10.1046/j.1525-1497.2001.016009606.x · Cited by 44,910 · see citing works
What Is the Male-to-Female Ratio in Autism Spectrum Disorder? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Loomes, R., Hull, L., & Mandy, W. P. L. (2017) · Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2017.03.013 · Cited by 2,804 · see citing works
The Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC): factor structure, reliability, and validity
MARCH, J. S., PARKER, J. D. A., SULLIVAN, K., STALLINGS, P., & CONNERS, C. K. (1997) · Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry · doi:10.1097/00004583-199704000-00019 · Cited by 2,236 · see citing works
Chorpita, B. F., Yim, L., Moffitt, C., Umemoto, L. A., & Francis, S. E. (2000) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/s0005-7967(99)00130-8 · Cited by 1,966 · see citing works
SILVERMAN, W. K., SAAVEDRA, L. M., & PINA, A. A. (2001) · Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry · doi:10.1097/00004583-200108000-00016 · Cited by 1,190 · see citing works
Psychometric properties of the revised child anxiety and depression scale in a clinical sample
Chorpita, B. F., Moffitt, C. E., & Gray, J. (2005) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2004.02.004 · Cited by 905 · cited 3× · see citing works
“Consistent with others [14 – 16], internal consistency of the total anxiety scale in the RCADS-C/P was excellent.”
The Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for Children
SILVERMAN, W. K., & NELLES, W. B. (1988) · Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry · doi:10.1097/00004583-198811000-00019 · Cited by 688 · see citing works
Implementing Measurement-Based Care in Behavioral Health: A Review
Lewis, C. C., Boyd, M., Puspitasari, A., Navarro, E., Howard, J., Kassab, H., Hoffman, M., Scott, K., Lyon, A., Douglas, S., et al. (2019) · JAMA Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2018.3329 · Cited by 605 · see citing works
The Pediatric Anxiety Rating Scale (PARS): development and psychometric properties
P, T. R. U. O. P. (2002) · Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry · doi:10.1097/00004583-200209000-00006 · Cited by 532 · see citing works
Presentation of depression in autism and Asperger syndrome: A review
Stewart, M. E., Barnard, L., Pearson, J., Hasan, R., & O’Brien, G. (2006) · Autism · doi:10.1177/1362361306062013 · Cited by 515 · see citing works
Joshi, G., Petty, C., Wozniak, J., Henin, A., Fried, R., Galdo, M., Kotarski, M., Walls, S., & Biederman, J. (2010) · Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · doi:10.1007/s10803-010-0996-9 · Cited by 464 · see citing works
Comorbidity of Asperger syndrome: a preliminary report
Ghaziuddin, M., Weidmer‐Mikhail, E., & Ghaziuddin, N. (1998) · Journal of Intellectual Disability Research · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.1998.tb01647.x · Cited by 414 · see citing works
Traditional and atypical presentations of anxiety in youth with autism spectrum disorder
Kerns, C. M., Kendall, P. C., Berry, L., Souders, M. C., Franklin, M. E., Schultz, R. T., Miller, J., & Herrington, J. (2014) · Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · doi:10.1007/s10803-014-2141-7 · Cited by 405 · see citing works
Self-citationEbesutani, C. K., Bernstein, A., Nakamura, B. J., Chorpita, B. F., & Weisz, J. R. (2009) · Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology · doi:10.1007/s10802-009-9363-8 · Cited by 210 · see citing works
Piqueras, J. A., Martín-Vivar, M., Sandín, B., Costas, C. S. L., & Pineda, D. (2017) · Journal of Affective Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.jad.2017.04.022 · Cited by 194 · see citing works
Kerns, C. M., Renno, P., Kendall, P. C., Wood, J. J., & Storch, E. A. (2017) · Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology · doi:10.1080/15374416.2016.1233501 · Cited by 170 · see citing works
Self-citationDevelopment of the Parent-Rated Anxiety Scale for Youth With Autism Spectrum Disorder
Scahill, L. D., Lecavalier, L., Schultz, R. T., Evans, A. N., Maddox, B. B., Pritchett, J., Herrington, J. D., Gillespie, S. E., Miller, J. S., Amoss, R. T., et al. (2019) · Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2018.10.016 · Cited by 146 · see citing works
The Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale: A Psychometric Investigation with Australian Youth
de Ross, R. L., Gullone, E., & Chorpita, B. F. (2002) · Behaviour Change · doi:10.1375/bech.19.2.90 · Cited by 131 · see citing works
Convergent and Divergent Validity of the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale
Reynolds, C. R. (1982) · Educational and Psychological Measurement · doi:10.1177/001316448204200429 · Cited by 128 · see citing works
May, T., Cornish, K. M., & Rinehart, N. (2013) · Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · doi:10.1007/s10803-013-1964-y · Cited by 119 · see citing works
Ebesutani, C. K., Chorpita, B. F., Higa-McMillan, C. K., Nakamura, B. J., Regan, J., & Lynch, R. E. (2010) · Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology · doi:10.1007/s10802-010-9460-8 · Cited by 115 · see citing works
Parent–child agreement of anxiety symptoms in youth with autism spectrum disorders
Blakeley‐Smith, A., Reaven, J., Ridge, K. E., & Hepburn, S. (2011) · Research in Autism · doi:10.1016/j.rasd.2011.07.020 · Cited by 111 · see citing works
Kösters, M. P., Chinapaw, M. J. M., Zwaanswijk, M., van der Wal, M. F., & Koot, H. M. (2015) · BMC Psychiatry · doi:10.1186/s12888-015-0509-7 · Cited by 107 · see citing works
Storch, E. A., Wood, J. J., Ehrenreich, J. T., Jones, A. M., Park, J. M., Lewin, A. B., & Murphy, T. K. (2012) · Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · doi:10.1007/s10803-012-1489-9 · Cited by 89 · see citing works
Self-citationReliability and Validity of Parent- and Child-Rated Anxiety Measures in Autism Spectrum Disorder
Kaat, A. J., & Lecavalier, L. (2015) · Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · doi:10.1007/s10803-015-2481-y · Cited by 83 · cited 9× · see citing works
“We hypothesized, based on studies with similar samples [22,23] that RCADS-C/P would have moderate-to-good convergent and divergent validity.”
InfluentialRenno, P., & Wood, J. J. (2013) · Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · doi:10.1007/s10803-013-1767-1 · Cited by 82 · see citing works
The Utility of Clinicians Ratings of Anxiety Using the Pediatric Anxiety Rating Scale (PARS)
Ginsburg, G. S., Keeton, C. P., Drazdowski, T. K., & Riddle, M. A. (2010) · Child & Youth Care Forum · doi:10.1007/s10566-010-9125-3 · Cited by 81 · see citing works
Psychometric properties of the SCARED in youth with autism spectrum disorder
Stern, J. A., Gadgil, M. S., Blakeley‐Smith, A., Reaven, J., & Hepburn, S. (2014) · Research in Autism · doi:10.1016/j.rasd.2014.06.008 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
Sterling, L., Renno, P., Storch, E. A., Ehrenreich-May, J., Lewin, A. B., Arnold, E., Lin, E., & Wood, J. (2015) · Autism · doi:10.1177/1362361313510066 · Cited by 64 · see citing works
Self-citationDonnelly, A., Fitzgerald, A., Shevlin, M., & Dooley, B. (2019) · Journal of Mental Health · doi:10.1080/09638237.2018.1437604 · Cited by 60 · see citing works
Discrepancies Between Parent and Child Ratings of Anxiety in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder
Kalvin, C. B., Marsh, C. L., Ibrahim, K., Gladstone, T., Woodward, D. W., Grantz, H., Ventola, P., & Sukhodolsky, D. G. (2019) · Autism Research · doi:10.1002/aur.2220 · Cited by 52 · see citing works
The French Version of the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS) in a Nonclinical Sample
Bouvard, M. A., Denis, A., & Roulin, J. (2015) · Swiss Journal of Psychology · doi:10.1024/1421-0185/a000158 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Storch, E. A., Wood, J. J., Guzick, A. G., Small, B. J., Kerns, C. M., Ordaz, D. L., Schneider, S. C., & Kendall, P. C. (2021) · Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · doi:10.1007/s10803-021-05000-0 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Self-citationCarruthers, S., Kent, R. G., Hollocks, M. J., & Simonoff, E. A. (2018) · Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · doi:10.1007/s10803-018-3774-8 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
Predictors of parent-child agreement on child anxiety diagnoses on the ADIS-IV-C/P
Hamblin, R. J., Salloum, A., Andel, R., Nadeau, J. M., McBride, N. M., Lewin, A. B., & Storch, E. A. (2016) · Psychiatry Research · doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2016.07.041 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Self-citationValidity of the patient health questionnaire 9-item in autistic youths: a pilot study
Pilunthanakul, T., Goh, T. J., Fung, D. S. S., Sultana, R., Allen, J. C., & Sung, M. (2021) · BMC Psychiatry · doi:10.1186/s12888-021-03556-w · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Storch, E. A., Schneider, S. C., Olsen, S. M., Ramírez, A. C., Berry, L. N., Goin‐Kochel, R. P., McNeel, M. M., Candelari, A. E., Guzick, A. G., Cepeda, S. L., et al. (2022) · Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · doi:10.1007/s10803-022-05775-w · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Schwartzman, J. M., Roth, M. C., Paterson, A. V., Jacobs, A. X., & Williams, Z. J. (2024) · Autism · doi:10.1177/13623613231213543 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
“…coefficient alpha values from a prior study validating the RCADS-C/P in autistic youth receiving psychotherapy (RCADS-C: α = 0.82; RCADS-P: α = 0.67; Khalfe et al., 2023), and model-based difference scores based on individual-level expected values of the posterior predictive distribution at…”
MethodInfluentialHalvorsen, M. B., Kildahl, A. N., Kaiser, S., Axelsdottir, B., Aman, M. G., & Helverschou, S. B. (2024) · Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · doi:10.1007/s10803-024-06324-3 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Lei, J., Leigh, E., Charman, T., Russell, A., & Hollocks, M. (2024) · Autism · doi:10.1177/13623613241238251 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Abdi, F., Pakzad, R., Shaterian, N., Ashtari, M., Ashtari, S., Khoramabadi, Z. K., & Jandaghian-Bidgoli, M. (2024) · BMC Psychology · doi:10.1186/s40359-024-02154-1 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Anxiety Disorders in Autistic People
Schiltz, H. K., McVey, A. J., & Lord, C. (2024) · Psychiatric Clinics of North America · doi:10.1016/j.psc.2024.04.016 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Petrič, M., Mesarič, K. K., Kodrič, J., & Janjušević, P. (2024) · Slovenian Journal of Public Health · doi:10.2478/sjph-2024-0022 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Kook, M., Yang, M., Usua, M., Clinger, J. W., Schneider, S. C., Berry, L. N., Goin‐Kochel, R. P., Wiese, A., Riddle, D., Palo, A. D., et al. (2024) · Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.jocrd.2024.100879 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Self-citationGuzick, A. G., Kaplan‐Kahn, E. A., Cheng, J. S.-C., Murphy, C., Onyeka, O. “., Riddle, D., Dibbs, T., Berry, L. N., Goin‐Kochel, R. P., & Storch, E. A. (2025) · Cognitive and Behavioral Practice · doi:10.1016/j.cbpra.2025.05.002
Self-citationNoor, S., Hussain, Z., Hamdan, Q. U., Zaman, M., Paracha, R. Z., & Shamsi, S. A. Z. (2025) · Frontiers in Psychiatry · doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1672178
Henríquez, M. D., Martínez‐Molina, A., Sotillo, M., & Carmona, M. B. (2026) · Research in Autism · doi:10.1016/j.reia.2026.202822
Reeson, M., Pazderka, H., Polzin, W., Wei, Y., Greenshaw, A., & Silverstone, P. H. (2026) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0354692
Lloyd-White, S., Borschmann, R., Rorke, A., Stark, E. A., & Combe, G. (2026) · BJPsych Open · doi:10.1192/bjo.2026.12039
Lack, O. J., Hollocks, M. J., Baird, G., Ozsivadjian, A., Absoud, M., Happé, F., & Simonoff, E. A. (2026) · Autism Research · doi:10.1002/aur.70384
- Authors
- Khalfe, N., Goetz, A. R., Trent, E. S., Guzick, A. G., Smarason, O., Kook, M., Olsen, S., Ramirez, A. C., Weinzimmer, S. A., Berry, L., Schneider, S. C., Goodman, W. K., & Storch, E. A.
- Affiliations
- Baylor College of Medicine (US)
- Corresponding author
- Storch, Eric A.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Mood and Anxiety Disorders
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2023-08
- Volume
- 2
- Pages
- 100017
- ISSN
- 2950-0044 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC10486182
- OpenAlex
- W4385782091
- Cited by
- 13
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 1
- FWCI
- 1.95
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Mood and Anxiety Disorders (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Digital Commons-TMC (Texas Medical Center) (submittedVersion)
- ScholarWorks @ UTRGV (The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- International OCD Foundation
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P50HD103555)
- National Institutes of Health
- Fulbright Association
- Leifur Eiríksson Foundation
- REAM Foundation
- Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Keywords
- autism spectrum disorder, anxiety, depression, internalizing problems, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, psychometric properties, validity, reliability statistics, autistic youth, comorbidities, social dysfunction
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
