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The Factor Structure of MASC Youth Report in Norwegian School Children

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Abstract

Identifying children with symptoms of anxiety before they develop clinical disorders is important. The objective of our study was to examine the latent factor structure of the MASC (youth report version) in a large self-selected sample of school children in 4th to 6th grade, and examine if the measure had a comparable factor structure for gender and age. Gender and age differences in anxiety symptoms were also examined. Children (N = 1686, 53.8% female) were recruited from schools during pretest of an ongoing randomized, controlled, indicative intervention. Latent variable modelling was used to determine the underlying concepts of the MASC. We found good model fit for the four-factor model, however some items on the Harm/Avoidance scale had low factor loadings. Invariance analysis indicated that the MASC had similar factor structure (comparable meaning) for boys and girls and for younger and older children in this sample. Girls scored significantly higher than boys on all subscales and on the Total Anxiety scale. Age differences were only found on the Separation Anxiety scale. Overall, the original four-factor structure of the MASC was confirmed within a large sample of school children and was invariant across gender and age. However, the Harm/avoidance scale warrants some attention. The MASC is a potentially useful measure to be used for screening purposes in a school setting.

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Funding

The study was funded by the Norwegian research Council, award number 228846/H10

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Kristin Dagmar Martinsen & Trine Waaktaar

  2. Regional Center for Child and Adolecent Mental Health, Eastern and Southern, Norway

    Kristin Dagmar Martinsen, Solveig Holen & Simon-Peter Neumer

  3. Regional Centre for Child and Youth Mental Health and Child Welfare, Tromsø, Norway

    Lene Mari P. Rasmussen & Joshua Patras

  4. Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Philip C. Kendall

Authors
  1. Kristin Dagmar Martinsen
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  2. Solveig Holen
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  3. Simon-Peter Neumer
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  4. Trine Waaktaar
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  5. Lene Mari P. Rasmussen
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  6. Philip C. Kendall
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  7. Joshua Patras
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kristin Dagmar Martinsen.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by the Regional Ethics committee, Region South and East Norway, 2013/1909/REK Sør-Øst.

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Martinsen, K.D., Holen, S., Neumer, SP. et al. The Factor Structure of MASC Youth Report in Norwegian School Children. J Child Fam Stud 26, 1808–1816 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-017-0705-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-017-0705-9

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