Abstract

The aim of this study is to assess the psychometric properties of the Icelandic version of the Preschool Anxiety Scale-Revised (PAS-R). The PAS-R is a parent-based questionnaire designed to assess anxiety symptoms in preschool aged children and consists of four subscales: general anxiety, social anxiety, separation anxiety and specific fears. Participants were four to six-year-old children from Icelandic preschools (N = 255) and children in a primary health care sample (N = 29). Participants from the preschool sample had significantly lower scores than Australian participants in the original study on the PAS-R. Exploratory factor analysis demonstrated a decent fit for a four-factor model. Confirmatory factor analysis showed a rather poor fit of the four-factor model. Cronbach’s alpha for the total PAS-R scale was high (.908) and acceptable for all subscales (GAD = .828, SOC = .853, SEP = .743, SPC = .725) indicating good internal consistency. The PAS-R was correlated to subscales on the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and results showed decent convergent (ranging from .5 to .7) and discriminative validity (ranging from −.1 to .3). Scores on the PAS-R in the preschool sample were compared to the primary health care sample. Results indicate that the PAS-R can differentiate between children in a community sample and children showing first signs of anxiety problems. Taken together, results suggest decent psychometric properties of the Icelandic version of the PAS-R in a sample of four to six-year-old children. Although, factor structure is rather unclear and needs to be further assessed.

摘要

这项研究的目的是评估学龄前焦虑量表修订版（PAS-R）的冰岛语版本的心理计量学特性。PAS-R是基于父母的问卷，旨在评估学龄前儿童的焦虑症状，它由四个分量表组成：总体焦虑，社交焦虑，分离焦虑和特定恐惧感。参与者是来自冰岛学龄前儿童的4至6岁儿童（N  = 255）和接受初级卫生保健样本的儿童（N = 29）。学龄前儿童的参与者的得分明显低于原始PAS-R研究中的澳大利亚参与者。探索性因素分析表明，该模型非常适合四因素模型。验证性因素分析显示四因素模型的拟合度很差。总PAS-R量表的Cronbach's alpha较高（.908），所有子量表（GAD = .828，SOC = .853，SEP = .743，SPC = .725）均可接受，表明内部一致性良好。PAS-R与强度和难度问卷（SDQ）的子量表相关，结果显示收敛性良好（范围从0.5到.7）和判别有效性（范围从-0.1到.3）。将学龄前样本中PAS-R的得分与初级卫生保健样本进行比较。结果表明，PAS-R可以区分社区样本中的儿童和表现出焦虑问题的最初迹象的儿童。两者合计，结果表明在四到六岁的儿童样本中冰岛语版本的PAS-R具有良好的心理测量特性。尽管，因素结构还不清楚，需要进一步评估。