Resumen de Validity Evidence of the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale-30 in Colombian Children

Haydi N. Barajas, Francisco J. Ruiz

• Emotional disorders are highly prevalent in children worldwide. Accordingly, it is necessary to develop assessment tools for these disorders. The Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS) is a widely used screening instrument for children and adolescents that can also be used as an outcome measure. A short version of the RCADS (the RCADS-30) has been analyzed extensively in Spain and, more scarcely, in Latin American countries. This study examined the psychometric properties of the RCADS-30 in Colombia for the first time. A large sample of Colombian children between 8 and 12 years responded to the RCADS-30. The internal consistency of the RCADS-30 subscales was acceptable, except for the obsessive-compulsive disorder scale. A confirmatory factor analysis showed that the six-factor model obtained an acceptable fit to the data. This factor model showed scalar measurement invariance across gender and age. The RCADS-30 subscales showed discriminant construct validity according to the heterotrait-monotrait ratio of correlations and convergent validity according to the correlations with the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale -Youth. Girls showed higher scores on all the RCADS-30 subscales than boys, with differences being higher for Depression, Panic Disorder, and Social Phobia. Older children showed higher scores than younger children in Depression and Social Phobia but lower scores in Separation Anxiety Disorder. In conclusion, the RCADS-30 has demonstrated good psychometric properties in Colombian children