P112: Psychometric Properties of Separation Anxiety Assessment Scale (Parent Version)

Separation anxiety disorder (SAD) is the most commonly diagnosed and impairing childhood anxiety disorder. Given that SAD symptoms in early childhood have been linked to later psychopathology, early identification and treatment of it is critical. The aim of the present study was the examination of validity and reliability of separation anxiety assessment scale-parent version (SAAS-P) (Hahn, Hajilian, Eisen, Winder, & Pincus, 2003) in a sample of 4-6 years old children of Tehran. The SAAS-P is a 34-item self-report instrument that was proposed to measure four symptom dimensions of separation anxiety: fear of abandonment, fear of being alone, fear of physical illness and worry about calamitous events. The current study evaluated several aspects of the SAAS-P's psychometric properties. First we translate the SAAS-P and translate it back into english. It revealed appropriate conceptual fitness. Then the mothers of 302 children from sixteen kindergartens in district 1 in Tehran were selected by available sampling and were asked to complete the SAAS-P and preschool anxiety scale (PAS) (Spence, Rapee, McDonald, & Ingram, 2001). Validity evaluation yielded positive results, in addition to face validity that was confirmed by specialists, criterion-references validity was supported by high (0.69) correlation with preschool anxiety scale. Moreover all subscales of SAAS-P displayed moderate to high internal consistency (0.63 to 0.73) and had good reliability. The confirmatory factor analysis supported the four-factor model of the scale. The analyses of the psychometric properties suggest that the SAAS-P is a promising measure of separation anxiety that can be used in clinical situations and is able to screen the children with separation anxiety.