Validating the German version of the Revised Children's Anxiety and Depression Scale in a sample of pediatric chronic pain patients.

OBJECTIVE

Many children and adolescents with chronic pain report substantial emotional distress, such as symptoms of anxiety and depression, that need to be assessed for successful chronic pain treatment. In the context of pediatric chronic pain, the Revised Children's Anxiety and Depression Scale has been recommended for the assessment of anxiety and depression symptoms. Therefore, the present study aimed to validate the German version of the Revised Children's Anxiety and Depression Scale in a sample of children and adolescents with chronic pain.

METHODS

Data were collected from N = 300 children and adolescents (age 8-17 years) who presented with headache, abdominal pain and/or musculoskeletal pain at a specialized pediatric pain center for interdisciplinary outpatient pain evaluation.

RESULTS

Cronbach's α for the total and subscales of the Revised Children's Anxiety and Depression scale ranged from 0.73 to 0.95. Sound psychometric properties were found in terms of item properties, factor structure and convergent validity with other measures of anxiety and depression (r ranged from 0.40 to 0.94). Girls reported significantly higher levels of anxiety and depression compared with boys. Higher pain severity was associated with more symptoms of anxiety and depression.

CONCLUSION

This study demonstrated that the German version of the Revised Children's Anxiety and Depression Scale is a reliable and valid measure for the assessment of anxiety and depression symptoms in children and adolescents with chronic pain. Further studies in school and clinical samples are needed to establish German norms and cutoff points for this scale.