Validity of the Revised Children’s Anxiety and Depression Scale for youth with autism spectrum disorders
Abstract
High rates of anxiety and depression are reported among youth with autism spectrum disorders. These conditions are generally assessed using measures validated for typically developing youth. Few studies have investigated their validity for autism spectrum disorders, which is crucial for accurate assessment and the provision of proper treatment. The Revised Children's Anxiety and Depression Scale was evaluated with 67 youth with autism spectrum disorders to examine its utility in measuring anxiety and depression in this population. Parents and children (aged 11-15 years) referred to a multisite intervention study completed the Pediatric Anxiety Rating Scale, Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children, Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule, Child Behavior Checklist, and Revised Children's Anxiety and Depression Scale. Results suggest acceptable internal consistency of the Revised Children's Anxiety and Depression Scale. Modest convergent validity was found among the Revised Children's Anxiety and Depression Scale and other standardized measures of anxiety and depression. There were stronger correlations between Revised Children's Anxiety and Depression Scale Total scores and subscales of measures expected to correlate significantly than those not expected to correlate. One exception was a significant association between the Revised Children's Anxiety and Depression Scale and Child Behavior Checklist Attention subscale, calling into question the divergent validity in separating…
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
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 adolescents.
“The RCADS-P/C has been validated for use with autistic adolescents (Kaat & Lecavalier, 2015; Sterling et al., 2015).”
From The relationship between distress tolerance and behavioral activation on anxiety and depression symptomatology in autistic youth: Leveraging self and caregiver perspectives (2024) · cites this paper as Sterling et al., 2015
Cites
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 2× · see citing works
“The current study sought to address the gap in the literature by providing a preliminary assessment of the convergent and divergent validity of one promising measure of anxiety and depression for youth with ASD, the Revised Children’s Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS; Chorpita et al., 2005).”
BackgroundThe 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
Psychiatric comorbidity in young adults with a clinical diagnosis of Asperger syndrome
Lugnegård, T., Hallerbäck, M. U., & Gillberg, C. (2011) · Research in Developmental Disabilities · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2011.03.025 · Cited by 483 · cited 2× · see citing works
“Other prevalence estimates have yielded rates as high as 70% in samples of adults with ASD (Lugnegård et al., 2011).”
BackgroundComorbid anxiety symptoms in children with pervasive developmental disorders
Muris, P., Steerneman, P., Merckelbach, H., Holdrinet, I., & Meesters, C. (1998) · Journal of Anxiety Disorders · doi:10.1016/s0887-6185(98)00022-x · Cited by 368 · see citing works
Reinholdt-Dunne, M. L., Mogg, K., & Bradley, B. P. (2013) · Cognition & Emotion · doi:10.1080/02699931.2012.715081 · Cited by 119 · cited 1× · see citing works
“This was an unexpected finding; however, less ability to focus attention has previously been associated with higher levels of anxiety in children and adults (e.g. Reinholdt et al., 2012), perhaps because attention, a key aspect of executive functioning, helps regulate emotional impulses.”
Result
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Development of the anxiety scale for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASC‐ASD)
Rodgers, J., Wigham, S., McConachie, H., Freeston, M., Honey, E., & Parr, J. R. (2016) · Autism Research · doi:10.1002/aur.1603 · Cited by 276 · see citing works
Sex Differences in Internalizing Problems During Adolescence in Autism Spectrum Disorder
Oswald, T. M., Winter-Messiers, M. A., Gibson, B., Schmidt, A. M., Herr, C. M., & Solomon, M. (2016) · Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · doi:10.1007/s10803-015-2608-1 · Cited by 104 · see citing works
Schwartzman, J. M., Muscatello, R. A., & Corbett, B. A. (2023) · Autism · doi:10.1177/13623613231162154 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
Wallace, G. L., Richard, E., Wolff, A., Nadeau, M., & Zucker, N. (2021) · Autism · doi:10.1177/1362361320942087 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
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., et al. (2023) · Journal of Mood and Anxiety Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.xjmad.2023.100017 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Self-citationSchwartzman, J. M., & Bonner, H. R. (2024) · Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · doi:10.1007/s10803-023-06039-x · 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
Schwartzman, J. M., Antezana, L., & Conner, C. M. (2024) · Autism Research · doi:10.1002/aur.3208 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“The RCADS-P/C has been validated for use with autistic adolescents (Kaat & Lecavalier, 2015; Sterling et al., 2015).”
- Authors
- Sterling, L., Renno, P., Storch, E. A., Ehrenreich-May, J., Lewin, A. B., Arnold, E., Lin, E., & Wood, J.
- Affiliations
- University of California, USA
- University of South Florida (US)
- University of Miami, USA
- Venue
- Autism
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2014-01-13
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 113-117
- ISSN
- 1362-3613 (ISSN-L)
- 1461-7005
- OpenAlex
- W2132751150
- Cited by
- 64
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 2.42
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Autism (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R34HD65270-01, R34HD065270)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Keywords
- autism spectrum disorder, anxiety, depression, psychometric validity, convergent validity, discriminant validity, internal consistency, adolescents, high-functioning autism, attention deficits, Child Behavior Checklist
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Anxiety, Anxiety Disorders, Autistic Disorder, Child, Child Development Disorders, Pervasive, Depression, Humans, Psychometrics, Surveys and Questionnaires, Reproducibility of Results, Asperger Syndrome
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
