The Dutch Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index: psychometric properties and factor structure

Examined the reliability, validity, and factor structure of the Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index (CASI; Silverman, Fleisig, Rabian, & Peterson, 1991) in a Dutch sample. Five hundred forty-four Dutch schoolchildren between 8 and 16 years of age completed Dutch translations of the CASI; the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (Spielberger, Edwards, Lushene, Montuori, & Platzek, 1973); and the Fear Survey Schedule for Children-Revised (Ollendick, 1983). The Dutch CASI was found to have adequate internal consistency for use with children as well as adolescents. Results reveal that the CASI predicted fear beyond a measure of trait anxiety in this Dutch sample. Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses comparing different models were undertaken. The model with 3 first-order factors found in previous studies showed an acceptable fit in this cross-validation sample. Loadings on the 3 factors (Physical Concerns, Mental Concerns, and Publicly Observable Concerns) did not differ between children and adolescents. Results are compared with previous research on the CASI. Directions for future research are discussed.