Development of the Perth Adolescent Worry Scale (PAWS)

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Adolescent Mental Health
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Existing tools for adolescent worry lack content specificity.
• There is a need for a brief, reliable measure of adolescent worry content.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate the Perth Adolescent Worry Scale (PAWS).
• To create a psychometrically sound instrument to assess adolescent worries regarding peer relationships and academic success.

Main Methods:

• Item generation through interviews and existing instruments.
• Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses on data from 835 Australian adolescents (Grades 5-10).
• Assessment of scale invariance across age, sex, socioeconomic status, and neurodevelopmental status.

Main Results:

• A 12-item, two-factor solution emerged: Peer Relationships and Academic Success and the Future.
• The PAWS demonstrated strong psychometric properties, including factor structure support and strong invariance across most demographic groups.
• Correlations with psychological wellbeing indicators were examined.

Conclusions:

• The Perth Adolescent Worry Scale is a brief, easy-to-administer, and psychometrically strong instrument.
• PAWS is suitable for both applied professionals and researchers evaluating adolescent worries.
• The scale effectively captures the content of everyday worries in adolescents.