Psychometric properties of the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Iranian children

The present study investigated the psychometric characteristics of Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children. A descriptive method using survey was used to select 507 students from a population of 92249 3rd, 4th and 5th grade elementary school children in the City of Mashhad during the 2009 – 2010 academic year. Research tools used included a demographic information questionnaire, the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (Reynolds & Richmond, 1978), Children's Depression Scale (Kovacs, 1977) and Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for children (March, 1997). Data analysis showed that test-retest reliability and internal consistency for the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for children was 0.48 and 0.79 respectively. Also, the relationship between this scale and the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale and the Children's Depression Scale were 0.38 and 0.02 respectively which indicates convergent and divergent validity. Confirmatory factor analysis also showed that the four factor model of Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children's in the Iranian community is a good fit. The Multidimensional Anxiety Scale has favorable psychometric properties in the Iranian community and is a useful screening instrument for identifying children with anxiety disorders.