Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders
SCARED is a child and parent screen for anxiety-related symptoms. 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 child and/or parent ratings across several anxiety-related domains. 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.
- Informant
- Child and/or parent
- Typical use
- Anxiety case finding
- Not a diagnostic interview
- Clinician review required
- Dual informants
- May disagree
- Clinical role
- Screening support
- Diagnosis
- Not established by score
Administration
A focused informant experience
A child, parent, or both complete the authorised form. Dual-informant disagreement is common. A clinician reviews both rather than averaging them into a diagnosis.
- One question at a time with visible progress
- Large keyboard-operable response choices
- Previous, next, and answer-review steps
- Clear confirmation that informant answers 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
Published scoring keys exist. This page does not independently verify a cutoff. Use the official form and population notes.
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.