Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders - Child Version
SCARED is a screen for anxiety-related symptoms with child and parent forms. Lirena's entry is the 41-item child version. This page is for clinics. It is not a public test and not a diagnosis.
Overview
What is the SCARED?
The Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders gathers ratings across five anxiety-related areas: panic and somatic symptoms, generalised anxiety, separation anxiety, social anxiety and school avoidance. It is a screen to support further assessment, not a structured diagnostic interview.
Development and clinical use
Birmaher and colleagues developed SCARED in paediatric anxiety research. Child and parent forms exist. Later papers examined factor structures and cutoffs that are setting-dependent.
- Respondent
- Child (child version)
- Recall period
- Last 3 months
- Total range
- 0 to 82, cutoff 25
- Parent form
- Separate informant form
- Clinical role
- Screening support
- Diagnosis
- Not established by score
Administration
A focused client experience
The child rates 41 sentences for the last 3 months. For children ages 8 to 11, the form recommends that the clinician explain all questions or that the child answer sitting with an adult. The parent form is a separate informant form.
- One question at a time with visible progress
- Large keyboard-operable response choices
- Previous, next, and answer-review steps
- Clear confirmation that results go to the clinic
The illustration does not reproduce SCARED items.
Report showcase
Designed to make evidence easy to review
The downloadable synthetic example illustrates report layout using invented response patterns, without patient data or instrument questions.
- Named instrument, version, and provenance
- Item-level response pattern without source wording
- Methodology, references, and clinical boundary
- Responsible clinician review rather than automated conclusions
Clinician review required
Methodology
Understand the measure and its scoring conventions
Each item is rated 0 (Not True or Hardly Ever True), 1 (Somewhat True or Sometimes True) or 2 (Very True or Often True). The total ranges from 0 to 82, with a published cutoff of 25; scores above 30 are more specific. Each of the five subscales has its own published cutoff.
References
- Original SCARED paperBirmaher B et al. The Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED). J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 1997;36(4):545-553.
Questions
What clinics ask before they evaluate the SCARED
These answers stay inside educational catalogue scope. They do not replace official manuals or clinician judgement.
Does SCARED diagnose an anxiety disorder?
No. It is a screen. A clinician still has to assess function, duration, and alternatives.
Should both child and parent complete it?
Often both are useful. They are not the same score. This page does not mandate a battery.
Can I complete SCARED here?
No. This is educational catalogue information.
Is SCARED the same as RCADS?
No. They are different instruments with different structures and manuals.