INTERNALISING BEHAVIOURS

Revised Child Anxiety and

Depression Scale (RCADS)
47-item self-report for 8–18-year-olds

The Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS) is a 47-item measure designed to
assess symptoms corresponding to anxiety disorders and depression in children and young
people aged 8–18 years. The original measure includes six subscales aimed at assessing
separation anxiety disorder, social phobia, generalised anxiety disorder, panic disorder,
obsessive compulsive disorder and major depressive disorder.

Test-retest Sensitivity to
Internal consistency reliability Validity change

✓ ✓ ? ✓ ✓
Psychometric features (Scale) (Subscale)

Brevity Availability Ease of Scoring Used in the UK

Implementation
features ✕ ✓ ✓ ✓

*Please note that our assessment of this measure is based solely on the English self-report version of the RCADS, for children and
young people aged 8–18 years. The other versions of this measure were not assessed and therefore it should not be assumed
that they would receive the same rating.

What is this document?

This assessment of the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS) has been produced by the Early
Intervention Foundation (EIF) as part of guidance on selecting measures relating to parental conflict and its
impact on children. To read the full guidance report and download assessments of other measures, visit:
https://www.eif.org.uk/resource/measuring-parental-conflict-and-its-impact-on-child-outcomes

• Some of the RCADS items contain sensitive content (for example item 37: ‘I think about death’). If an
individual raises issues around self-harm, suicide or related issues, they should either be referred to the
relevant mental health services or the appropriate safeguarding procedures should be put in place.

• We found insufficient evidence to establish that the RCADS has good test-retest reliability over short
periods of time.

• From our review of the evidence, it appears that the six subscales of the RCADS have a good validity, while
that of the total score is questionable. We would therefore encourage you to use the individual subscale
scores rather than the total score.

CHILD OUTCOMES MEASURE: RCADS 1 EARLY INTERVENTION FOUNDATION | MARCH 2020

About the measure

Author(s)/ Publication year Type of measure

developer(s) for the original
Chorpita, B.F., version of the
Yim, L., Moffitt, C., measure
Umemoto L.A., &
Francis, S.E. 2000 Child self-report.

Versions available There are three additional versions of this measure available,
including a parent version (RCADS-P), a shortened 25-item
child self-report version and a shortened 25-item parent
version.

Outcome(s) This measure has been designed to assess anxiety disorders

assessed and depression in children and young people.

Subscales There are six subscales: separation anxiety disorder (SAD),

social phobia (SP), generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), panic
disorder (PD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and
major depressive disorder (MDD).
The RCADS also yields a Total Anxiety Scale (sum of the five
anxiety subscales) and a Total Internalising Scale (sum of all
six subscales).

Purpose/primary use The RCADS measures the reported frequency of various

symptoms of anxiety and low mood. It was developed as
a revision of the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale (SCAS)
in order to correspond to the dimensions of some anxiety
disorders reported in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual
of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), and also include major
depression. In particular, the RCADS was intended to refine
the measurement of generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) to
reflect core aspects of ‘worry’ (Wigham & Conachie, 2014).

Mode of This measure can be completed in person or online.

administration

Example item ‘I worry about things.’

Target population This measure was originally developed for children aged
8–18 years.

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Response format 4-point ordinal scale (0 = ‘Never’, 1 = ‘Sometimes’, 2 = ‘Often’,
3= ‘Always’)

Strengths & Strengths:

limitations
• The RCADS is a valid measure with good internal
consistency.
• It is free to access and easy to score (the measure is
available at: https://www.childfirst.ucla.edu/resources/,
with scoring instructions here: https://www.childfirst.ucla.
edu/resources/).
Limitations:
• We found insufficient evidence to establish that the RCADS
has good test-retest reliability over short periods of time.
• The RCADS has 47 items and might require more than 15
minutes to be completed.
• According to our review, it does not appear that the RCADS
has UK cut-off scores.

Link https://www.childfirst.ucla.edu/resources/

Contact details Bruce Chorpita: [email protected]

Copyright The English and translated versions of the RCADS are

copyrighted by Chorpita and Spence. Any use of these
instruments implies that the user has read and agreed
to the terms of use. Neither the developers nor UCLA are
responsible for any third-party use of these instruments by
individuals who have not read the RCADS guide or its terms of
use. While the RCADS can be used for research purposes, the
developers ask, as a professional courtesy, to be informed of
this before the study is conducted. Finally, the use of RCADS
should always include acknowledgement of the development
of the RCADS using appropriate scholarly citations, including
the item development contributed by Spence (1997) and
extensions by Chorpita et al. (2000).

Key reference(s) Chorpita, B.F., Yim, L.M., Moffitt, C. ., Umemoto L.A., & Francis,
S.E. (2000). Assessment of symptoms of DSM-IV anxiety
and depression in children: A Revised Child Anxiety and
Depression Scale. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 38,
835–855.
Spence, S.H. (1997). Structure of anxiety symptoms among
children: A confirmatory factor-analytic study. Journal of
Abnormal Psychology, 106, 280–297.

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Psychometric features in detail

Internal
consistency

de Ross et al. (2002) reported an alpha coefficient of 0.96 for the

whole scale. This study was conducted in Australia with a sample of
✓
405 children aged between 8–18 years (mean age = 13.24,
(Scale)
SD = 2.52).

We found a number of papers (Brown et al., 2013; Chorpita et al.

2000; Chorpita et al., 2005; Donnelly et al., 2019) reporting good
✓ internal consistency for the subscales of RCADS, with Cronbach’s
(Subscales) alpha values ranging from 0.64 to 0.96.
De Ross et al. (2002) reported alpha coefficient values between 0.79
and 0.88 for the RCADS subscales.
Donnelly et al. (2019) reported that the internal consistency for
the RCADS subscales ranged from 0.69 to 0.96. This study was
conducted in Ireland with a sample of 350 second-level students
(186 female) aged between 12–18 years (mean age = 14.97,
SD = 1.44). The majority of students identified themselves as
White (91.4%).
The developers (Chorpita et al., 2000) examined the subscales’
internal consistency and reported that all alpha coefficient values
ranged between 0.71 and 0.85. This study was conducted in Hawaii
with a sample of 246 children (137 females). The mean age was
12.20 years and the major ethnic groups included were Filipino
(29.9%), Japanese American (12.5%), Caucasian (9.4%), Hawaiian
(8.9%) and Multi-ethnic (20.1%).
In another study by the developers, Chorpita et al. (2005) examined
the internal consistency of the subscales in a clinical sample and
reported that all α coefficient values ranged between 0.78 and 0.88.
This study was conducted in Hawaii with a sample of 513 children
(167 females) aged between 7–17 years referred for assessment
to the University of Hawaii Center for Cognitive Behavior Therapy.
The mean age was 12.9 years (SD = 2.7), and the major ethnicities
reported were Caucasian (16.0%), Hawaiian (10.3%), Japanese
American (9.6%), Filipino (5.3%), and Multi-ethnic (43.3%).
Finally, Brown et al. (2013) reported that the internal consistency
of the RCADS subscales ranged from 0.64 to 0.82. This study was
conducted in the US with a sample of 229 primarily low-income,
urban African American children and adolescents (111 females)
aged between 7–17 years (mean age = 12.13 years).

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Test-retest In Chorpita et al. (2000), a subset of participants (125 children) was
reliability included in a one-week test-retest analysis. The authors reported
test-retest coefficients between of 0.75 and 0.80 for all subscales
except OCD (test-retest coefficient = 0.65). For boys only, the MDD
subscale had a test-retest coefficient of 0.64.
?

Validity From our review of the evidence, it appears that the six subscales of the
RCADS have a good validity, while that of the total score is questionable.
We would therefore encourage you to use the individual subscale scores
rather than the total score.
✓
de Ross et al. (2002) conducted a confirmatory factor analysis and
reported CFI = 0.83(6 factor) and RMSEA = 0.063 for six factors, and CFI
= 0.72 and RMSEA = 0.081 for one factor. This study was conducted in
Australia with a sample of 405 children aged between 8–18 years (mean
age = 13.24, SD = 2.52).
Donnelly et al. (2019) conducted a confirmatory factor analysis for
six factors and reported CFI = 0.96, RMSEA = 0.034. This study was
conducted in Ireland with a sample of 350 second-level students (186
female) aged between 12–18 years (mean age = 14.97, SD = 1.44). The
majority of students identified themselves as White (91.4%).
de Ross et al. (2002) reported that the RCADS subscales were
significantly associated with the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety
Scale (RCMAS) subscales and that the Pearson coefficients ranged
between 0.62 and 0.75. The authors also reported that the RCADS MMD
(Major depressive disorder) subscale score was significantly associated
with the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) (r = 0.80).
Donnelly et al. (2019) reported that both the RCADS MDD subscale and
RCADS total internalising factor were most strongly correlated with the
DASS-21 depression subscale (r = 0.79 for MDD and r = 0.73 for the
total internalising factor) compared to the DASS-21 anxiety subscale.
The RCADS PD (Panic Disorders) subscale and the RCADS total anxiety
subscale were reported to be most strongly correlated with the DASS-
Anxiety subscale (r = 0.72 and r = 0.71 respectively).
Chorpita et al. (2000) reported that the RCADS MMD (Major depressive
disorder) subscale score was associated with the Children's Depression
Inventory (CDI) (r = 0.70). The other subscales showed low correlations
with the CDI (r ranged between 0.18 and 0.45). The authors also
evaluated the correlations of the RCADS with the Revised Children's
Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS). It was predicted that the RCADS social
phobia (SP) subscale would correlate somewhat higher with the RCMAS-
Worry and RCMAS-P subscales, but correlations were low in particular
with RCMAS-Physiological Anxiety (r = 0.43). It was expected that the
obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) subscale should correlate relatively
higher with the RCMAS-Worry, but correlation was low (r = 0.44). Validity
coefficients were generally elevated among girls relative to the boys.

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Sensitivity to There is evidence that the RCADS can detect changes after
change participation in short and long mental health interventions in
children.
Stallard et al. (2014) reported that the RCARDS was sensitive to
change (RCADS: interaction co-efficient = −3.91, p < 0.0004). This
✓ study was a 12-month impact evaluation of the FRIENDS for Life
(health-led) programme, aimed at improving resilience, mental health
and wellbeing in children. This study was conducted with a sample
of 1,442 children across 45 schools between the ages of 9 and 10
where just under a third experienced bullying ≥two to three times per
month.
Humphrey (2019) reported that the RCADS detected change over
time (RCADS: t(53) = 3.89, p < 0.01). This study was a one group
pre-test/post-test design carried out in the UK aimed at evaluating
the Growing2gether programme (lasting 17–18 weeks) designed
to develop confidence and self-belief in disengaged youth. This
study was conducted with a sample of 72 participants with a range
of risk factors such as in care, eligibility for free school meals,
demonstratable behavioural problems, withdrawn social behaviour
or victims of bullying, or are receiving counselling. Participants were
between the ages of 12–16 years old with a mean age of 14.0 and
77% were female.

Implementation features in detail

Brevity This measure has 47 items.

Availability The measure is available for use through Dr Chorpita’s UCLA

resource page at no cost (www.childfirst.ucla.edu/resources.html).
It does not require a clinical licence to be used.

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Ease of The measure has simple scoring instructions involving basic
scoring calculations. It does not need to be scored by someone with
specific training or qualifications. The measure can be scored
either manually or by using an automated scoring procedure.
Scoring instructions can be found at https://www.childfirst.ucla.
✓ edu/resources/. Each item is assigned a numerical value from 0 to
3, and the values for the individual items are added together.
It is not clear if there is any information about the cut-offs of the
RCADS for the UK population, there are, however, cut-offs for the US
population.

Used in the The RCADS is a commonly used measure which has been
UK used in several UK studies, including in the assessment of the
DISCOVER Programme, the FRIENDS programme, the UK Resilience
Programme, the Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE)
Education is the school curriculum and Growing2gether (Challen,
✓ Machin, & Gillham 2014; Humphrey K., 2019; Michelson et al., 2016;
Stallard et al., 2014).

Language(s) The RCADS is available in English and has also been officially
translated into 16 other languages, including French, German,
Spanish, Chinese, Dutch, Danish and Greek. The official translations
can be found at: https://www.childfirst.ucla.edu/resources/.

CHILD OUTCOMES MEASURE: RCADS 7 EARLY INTERVENTION FOUNDATION | MARCH 2020

References
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structure of measures of anxiety and depression symptoms in African American youth. Child Psychiatry Hum
Dev, 44(4), 525–536.
Challen, A.R., Machin, S.J., & Gillham, J.E. (2014). The UK Resilience Programme: A school-based universal
nonrandomized pragmatic controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 82(1), 75–89.
Childs, J., Deighton, J., & Wolpert, M. (2013). Defining and measuring mental health and wellbeing: A response
mode report requested by the Department of Health for the Policy Research Unit in the Health of Children, Young
People and Families. Retrieved from http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ebpu/docs/publication_files/Defining_and_measuring_
mental_health_and_wellbeing_in_children-CPRU_RM_report.pdf
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IV anxiety and depression in children: A Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale. Behaviour Research and
Therapy, 38, 835–855.
Chorpita, B.F., Moffitt, C.E., & Gray, J.A. (2005). Psychometric properties of the Revised Child Anxiety and
Depression Scale in a clinical sample. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 43, 309–322.
de Ross, R.L., Gullone, E., & Chorpita, B.F. (2002). The Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale: A psychometric
investigation with Australian youth. Behaviour Change, 19, 90–101.
Donnelly, A., Fitzgerald, A., Shevlin, M., & Dooley, B. (2019). Investigating the psychometric properties of the
revised child anxiety and depression scale (RCADS) in a non-clinical sample of Irish adolescents. Journal of
Mental Health, 28(4), 345–356.
Humphrey, K. (2019). Growing2gether Impact Report (February 2019–July 2019). Growing2gether Scottish Youth
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Evaluation-Report-July-2019-7.pdf.
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families. UK: Press CAMHS.
Michelson, D., Sclare, I., Stahl, D., Morant, N., Bonin, E.M., & Brown, J.S. (2016). Early intervention for depression
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Weiss, D.C. & Chorpita, B.F. (2011). Revised Children’s Anxiety and Depression Scale – User’s Guide. Child F.I.R.S.T.
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First published in March 2020. © 2020

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