National Institute for Health and Care Research

Measure

Child and Adolescent Social Summary Weekly Rating Scale (CASSWRS)

Age range 11 — 18
Completion time 5 Minutes
Respondent Self Report
Problem areas
Anxiety

Overview

The Child and Adolescent Social Summary Weekly Rating Scale (CASSWRS) is a brief self-report measure designed to monitor social anxiety and associated cognitive and behavioural processes in young people over the previous week. It assesses overall social anxiety, avoidance of social situations, self-focused attention, anticipatory processing and post-event processing. The measure is particularly suited to repeated use during Cognitive Therapy for adolescent Social Anxiety Disorder. The CASSWRS is an adolescent adaptation of the Social Phobia/Social Summary Weekly Rating Scale developed for use within Cognitive Therapy for Social Anxiety Disorder. The adolescent version contains six brief ratings covering: 1. Overall severity of social anxiety during the previous week 2. Avoidance of social situations or activities because of social anxiety 3. Self-focused versus externally focused attention in social situations generally 4. Self-focused versus externally focused attention in social situations the young person found difficult 5. Anticipatory processing – repeatedly thinking about what might go wrong before social situations 6. Post-event processing – repeatedly reviewing social interactions after they have finished These domains correspond closely to processes identified in the Clark and Wells cognitive model of Social Anxiety Disorder. The measure is designed to be sufficiently brief for frequent administration and has been used session-by-session during Cognitive Therapy for adolescent Social Anxiety Disorder.

Scoring & Interpretation

The CASSWRS contains six items assessing experiences during the previous week. Each item is scored from 0–8. Item 1 assesses how much of a problem social anxiety has been, Item 2 assesses frequency of avoidance of social situations or activities, Items 3 and 4 assess attentional focus in social situations, Item 5 assesses frequency of anticipatory processing before social situations, Item 6 assesses frequency of post-event processing after social interactions. An average score across the items can be calculated, producing a score ranging from 0–8, with higher scores indicating greater social anxiety and associated maintaining processes. No reverse-scored items are used.

Psychometric Properties

Internal Consistency

Not reported for the complete CASSWRS. Because the six items deliberately assess several related but distinct aspects of social anxiety and its maintaining processes internal consistency may not necessarily be the most informative indicator of its measurement properties.

Test-Retest Reliability

Not reported. The measure is designed to be sensitive to weekly changes in social anxiety and associated cognitive and behavioural processes, particularly during treatment. Conventional test–retest stability may therefore be less informative than responsiveness to change.

Factor Structure

Not reported. The six items represent conceptually distinct but related processes within cognitive models of Social Anxiety Disorder rather than an empirically established multi-factor structure.

Validity

Formal validation of the complete CASSWRS has not been reported in a dedicated psychometric study. However, published clinical research provides preliminary evidence of clinical utility and sensitivity to change. Leigh et al. (2021) used the CASSWRS as an additional measure of social anxiety in adolescents receiving Cognitive Therapy for Social Anxiety Disorder in NHS CAMHS. The mean CASSWRS score decreased from 5.24 (SD = 1.26) before treatment to 2.21 (SD = 2.19) at follow-up, alongside substantial improvements on established social anxiety symptom measures and diagnostic outcomes.

Measurement Invariance

Not reported.

Access

The CASSWRS is available as part of the Oxford Centre for Anxiety Disorders and Trauma (OxCADAT) resources for Cognitive Therapy for adolescent Social Anxiety Disorder. The adolescent treatment manual and associated measures are made available through OxCADAT Resources. Users should consult the current website conditions regarding use, reproduction and redistribution.
https://oxcadatresources.com/

Citation

Original Reference

The CASSWRS is an adolescent adaptation of a weekly summary measure originally developed for Cognitive Therapy for Social Anxiety Disorder.

Clark, D. M., Ehlers, A., McManus, F., Hackmann, A., Fennell, M., Campbell, H., Flower, T., Davenport, C., & Louis, B. (2003). Cognitive therapy versus fluoxetine in generalized social phobia: A randomized placebo-controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 71(6), 1058–1067. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.71.6.1058

The adolescent adaptation is described and used in:

Leigh, E., & Clark, D. M. (2016). Cognitive therapy for social anxiety disorder in adolescents: A development case series. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 44(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1352465815000715

References

Leigh, E., & Clark, D. M. (2016). Cognitive therapy for social anxiety disorder in adolescents: A development case series. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 44(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1352465815000715

Leigh, E., Creswell, C., Stallard, P., Waite, P., Violato, M., Pearcey, S., Brooks, E., Taylor, L., Warnock-Parkes, E., & Clark, D. M. (2021). Delivering cognitive therapy for adolescent social anxiety disorder in NHS CAMHS: A clinical and cost analysis. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 49(4), 385–397. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1352465821000035

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