Reliability and validity of the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS) across samples of Mexican, Mexican American, and European American children: a preliminary investigation1

Abstract

The Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS: Reynolds & Richmond, 1978) is widely used in the assessment of anxiety in Hispanic American children. To begin examining the applicability of the RCMAS to this population, the present study explored its factorial invariance across samples of Mexican, Mexican American, and European American children using structural equation modeling procedures. Internal consistency coefficients and relations among the RCMAS subscales across groups were also examined. Confirmatory factor analyses yielded support for the factorial invariance of the RCMAS across the three groups. Reliability coefficients and within-group relations among subscales of the RCMAS did not differ across groups. The results provide evidence for the reliability and validity of the RCMAS with Mexican and Mexican American youth, supporting its use with these populations.

Keywords:

• RCMAS
• cross-cultural validity
• reliability
• Hispanic American
• Mexican American
• anxiety
• Latino children
• measurement
• assessment

Notes

Table of means, standard deviations, and correlations of the RCMAS indicators are available from the first author upon request.