Screen for Child Anxiety Related Disorders (SCARED)

The SCARED screens for anxiety disorders in children and adolescents. Rather than producing a single anxiety score, it separates the forms anxiety takes, so that a child whose worry centres on being away from a parent is distinguished from one whose worry centres on being watched by peers.

Forty-one statements are each rated not true, sometimes true, or often true. Five subscales map onto DSM categories: panic and somatic symptoms, generalised anxiety, separation anxiety, social phobia, and school avoidance. Two parallel versions exist — one the child completes about themselves, one the parent completes about the child — and both are usually given, because the two often disagree.

• Parent and Child Form

Licensing Notes: Free to use with no licensing fees, and validated in over 20 languages. Forms are posted by the University of Pittsburgh and reproduced widely.

Learn More: Subscale cut-offs matter as much as the total. A total of 25 or above suggests a clinically significant anxiety disorder. A child can fall below the total threshold while clearing one subscale — which is exactly the case the subscales exist to catch.