ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to test the psychometric properties of the Spence Preschool Anxiety Scales (Spence, Rapee, McDonald, & Ingram, 2001) in a Romanian sample of preschoolers. The measure was completed by 718 mothers and 95 fathers of children aged 3 to 7 years. Regarding the structure of anxiety symptoms, (exploratory) principal components analysis and confirmatory factor analysis indicated either a four- or a five-factor solution as the best fit for the data. Due to the small differences between these models and to theoretical arguments, a model with five intercorrelated factors (social anxiety, physical injury fears, obsessive-compulsive disorder, separation anxiety and generalized anxiety), or one with an additional higher-order “anxiety” factor were preferred (although a four-factor model also provided a good fit for the data). There was also evidence for the construct validity of the instrument. We found good or acceptable internal consistency indices, while test-retest reliability was relatively low. Anxiety scores were generally higher than the ones reported by Spence et al. (2001). Symptoms of physical injury fears and social anxiety were the most common, but we found limited evidence for gender or age differences.

KEYWORDS: anxiety, preschoolers, Spence Preschool Anxiety Scales, confirmatory factor analysis.

PAGES:159-182