National Institute for Health and Care Research

Measure

Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index (CASI)

Age range 8 — 16
Completion time 10 Minutes
Respondent Self Report
Problem areas
Anxiety

Overview

The CASI measures how aversive children are to symptoms of anxiety, and was developed as a modification of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (Peterson & Reiss, 1987), to improve children's understanding of the items.

Scoring & Interpretation

The CASI is an 18-item scale. Each item is a statement about the fear associated with anxiety symptoms; and the respondent rates their agreement with the statement: none (0), some (1), or a lot (2) To score the CASI sum the numbers for all items to create an overall score, where higher scores indicate increased anxiety sensitivity.

Psychometric Properties

Internal Consistency

The Item-total correlation was strong (r =.87)

Test-Retest Reliability

Test-retest reliability using a two week timepoint was .76

Factor Structure

The factor structure of the CASI is debated within the literature. the strongest evidence generally supports a multidimensional hierarchical structure, with either three lower-order factors (physical, cognitive, social), or four lower-order factors (Francis et al., 2019)

Validity

The CASI is generally considered to have good convergent validity, adequate discriminant validity, strong construct validity.

Measurement Invariance

Access

Items included in Silverman et al (1999) License access unclear.

Citation

Silverman, W. K., Fleisig, W., Rabian, B., & Peterson, R. A. (1991). Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 20(2), 162–168. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15374424jccp2002_7

Original Reference

Silverman, W. K., Fleisig, W., Rabian, B., & Peterson, R. A. (1991). Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 20(2), 162–168.

References

  • Silverman, W.K., Ginsburg, G.S. & Goedhart, A.W. (1999). Factor structure of the childhood anxiety sensitivity index. Behaviour Research & Therapy, 37: 903-917. DOI: 10.1016/s0005-7967(98)00189-2
  • Rabian, B., Embry, L., & MacIntyre, D. (1999). Behavioral validation of the Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index in children. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 28(1), 105–112. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15374424jccp2801_9
  • Schmidt, N. B., Keough, M. E., Mitchell, M. A., Reynolds, E. K., Macpherson, L., Zvolensky, M. J., & Lejuez, C. W. (2010). Anxiety sensitivity: prospective prediction of anxiety among early adolescents. Journal of anxiety disorders, 24(5), 503–508. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2010.03.007
  • Francis, S.E., Noël, V.A. & Ryan, S.L. A Systematic Review of the Factor Structure of Anxiety Sensitivity Among Children: Current Status and Recommendations for Future Directions. Child Youth Care Forum 48, 603–632 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-019-09502-y
  • Chorpita, B.F. & Daleiden, E.L. (2000). Properties of the childhood anxiety sensitivity index in children with anxiety disorders: Autonomic and nonautonomic factors, Behavior Therapy, 31(2), 327-349, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7894(00)80018-0.

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