• Ho Cheung William Li and Violeta Lopez.
• The Nethersole School of Nursing, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Esther Lee Building, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong. williamli@cuhk.edu.hk
• Int J Nurs Stud. 2007 May 1;44(4):566-73.

BackgroundThere is a lack of a simplified instrument for use in busy clinical settings to measure and differentiate anxiety levels of children.ObjectivesTo develop a short form of the Chinese version of the State Anxiety Scale for Children (CSAS-C) and test psychometric properties of the new form.DesignThe study was divided into two phases with phase one aimed at developing a short form of the CSAS-C, while phase two aimed at testing psychometric properties of the new form. A test-retest, within-subjects design was employed. Children (7-12 years of age) admitted for surgery in a day surgery unit during two consecutive years' summer holiday were invited to participate in the study. In phase one, selected participants (N=112) were asked to respond to the CSAS-C. In phase two, selected participants (N=82) were asked to respond to the short form of the CSAS-C.ResultsUsing exploratory factor analysis, a subset of 10 items, which was highly correlated with scores obtained from the full form (r=0.92) and, which had acceptable internal consistency (r=0.83) was developed. The psychometric properties of this short form have been empirically tested, showing adequate internal consistency reliability, good concurrent validity, and excellent construct validity.ConclusionThis study addresses a gap in the literature by developing a 10-item short form of the CSAS-C. Results indicate that this short form is an appropriate and objective assessment tool for measuring anxiety levels of Chinese children in a busy clinical setting where time constraints make unfeasible the use of the full form.

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