LAUSR

Abstract Background/Objective People with Down syndrome (DS) experience anxiety problems more often than the normal population, but there are no adequate screening tests for diagnosis. This study therefore analyses the psychometric properties of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders in Spanish adolescents with DS. Method Descriptive statistics and item analysis (N = 412), exploratory factorial analysis (n = 200) and confirmatory (n = 212) and scale reliability analyses were performed and evaluated the internal consistency with various indices as well as the stability of the measurement of the resulting scale with better goodness-of-adjustment indices. Results A new scale was obtained with three factors and a smaller number of items (RMSEA [95% CI] = 03[0.02; 0.05]; CFI = 0.98; TLI = 0.98; GFI = 0.89; AGFI = 0.89) as well as high internal consistency (α = 0.89; ω = 0.90) and adequate measurement stability (rxx = 0.90). Conclusions The importance of validating psychopathological anxiety tests for children and youth with DS in order to build good mental health is discussed, emphasizing the need to provide easy, short-duration tests on both cognitive and emotional aspects in this clinical sub-population. This new version represents a valid and reliable tool to evaluate anxiety in DS.