Spence Children's Anxiety Scale SCAS
Spence Children's Anxiety Scale SCAS overview
Creator and Context
The Spence Children's Anxiety Scale (SCAS) is a self report measure of anxiety symptoms in children and young people, developed by Professor Susan Spence and published in 1998.
The form contains 44 items, of which 38 are scored anxiety items and six are positively worded filler items designed to reduce negative response bias. The scale is copyrighted, and commercial organisations and for profit clinical services are required to arrange a licence with the author.
Presenting Conditions
The SCAS produces six subscales:
Separation anxiety (6 items)
Social phobia (6 items)
Obsessive compulsive problems (6 items)
Panic and agoraphobia (9 items)
Physical injury fears (5 items)
Generalised anxiety (6 items)
Administration
Self completed, taking about 10 minutes. It can be read aloud by an adult for children with limited reading ability. Each item is rated Never (0), Sometimes (1), Often (2) or Always (3). There is no set time period the judgement refers to.
Desired Audience
Children and young people. Normative T score tables cover ages 8 to 11 and 12 to 15. The author advises using the 8 to 11 tables for 7 year olds and the 12 to 15 tables for 16 and 17 year olds.
The SCAS is the reference anxiety measure for children in Australia and is widely used internationally. Its six factor structure has been replicated across more than thirty studies and many countries, which makes it a dependable choice for services that need a defensible, cross culturally validated anxiety profile.
Considerations
The author is explicit: the SCAS is not a diagnostic instrument and should not be used to determine a clinical diagnosis.
The physical injury fears subscale has the weakest internal consistency of the six.
Norms cover ages 8 to 15. Use outside that range is an explicit approximation.
With no recall window, the SCAS indexes trait like frequency, which limits sensitivity to short interval change.
The scale may not be modified, and conversion into electronic format requires prior approval from the author.
How to score the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale SCAS
Conducting the assessment
The child rates 44 items, of which the 38 anxiety items are scored 0 to 3. The six filler items are not scored.
Interpretation
The 38 anxiety items are summed to give a total from 0 to 114, then converted to percentiles and T scores by age band and gender.
From the author's guidance:
A T score below 60 (below the 85th percentile) is within the normal range.
A T score of 60 or more indicates elevated anxiety, though not necessarily in the clinical range.
A T score of 65 places the child in the top 6 percent.
A T score of 70 places the child in the top 2 percent.
Clinical Considerations
Use an elevated T score as the trigger for a structured clinical interview, not as a conclusion.
Read the six subscales as a profile. The pattern of anxiety matters more for treatment planning than the total.
Pair with the parent version where possible, since parent and child reports diverge in predictable ways.
Spence Children's Anxiety Scale SCAS use cases
Assessing anxiety symptoms in children and young people
Producing a six domain anxiety profile
Screening in schools and community services
Research into childhood anxiety
Category
Anxiety
Research Summary
Spence, S. H. (1998). A measure of anxiety symptoms among children. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 36(5), 545 to 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 to 625.
Olofsdotter, S., Sonnby, K., Vadlin, S., Furmark, T., & Nilsson, K. W. (2016). Assessing adolescent anxiety in general psychiatric care: Diagnostic accuracy of the Swedish self report and parent versions of the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale. Assessment, 23(6), 744 to 757.
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Note on Assessment licensing
Some assessments are copyright protected and require a licence or the copyright holder's permission for clinical, commercial or digital use. Where that applies, obtaining and maintaining that permission is the responsibility of the practice or organisation using the assessment. Tacklit provides the digital administration, scoring and reporting. We do not grant, transfer or supply rights to the underlying instrument.
