Validation of a French Version of a New Anxiety Trait Scale for Children

Anxiety diagnosis is relatively complex in children because intensity as well as symptoms of anxiety change during childhood (Bouden, Halayem, & Fakhfakh, 2002). The principal aim of this study was to validate through Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) the a priori three-factor structure of the French version of the anxiety trait scale for children which includes psychological (“tend to be worried about everything”), behavioral (“tend to be upset, nervous or grumbling”), and somatic symptoms (“headache complaints”) of anxiety. This scale was previously found to discriminate, with high sensitivity and specificity, children with anxiety from control group. A first CFA performed on 288 6-12 year-old children showed an acceptable fit (2/df =2.66; RMSEA=.07 and CFI=.94). A second three-factor model was constructed and showed a better fit with a new sample of 287 children (2/df =2.18; RMSEA=.06 and CFI=.96), with a lower ECVI value for the model 2. For this model, the Cronbach’s alpha for each of the subscales ranged from .71 to .86, which confirmed the good internal reliability of the scale. This study provides a new three-factor structure for this anxiety scale and proposes normative data for French-speaking children.