RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF THE HAMILTON ANXIETY RATING-SCALE IN AN ADOLESCENT SAMPLE

Objective: Although generalized anxiety is an important clinical probl em among adolescents, there are no interview procedures to provide a g lobal anxiety rating that have demonstrated reliability and validity f or this population. The Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS) is a gene ral measure of anxiety that was developed for adults. The purpose of t his study was to determine the reliability and validity of the HARS wh en used with adolescents. Method: The sample consisted of 257 adolesce nts aged 12 to 18 years from both clinical and community sources. The HARS interviews and ratings were conducted as part of an extensive psy chiatric and medical assessment. Psychiatric diagnoses were determined by structured interview. Other questionnaire measures of anxiety were also obtained. Results: The interrater reliability and internal consi stency of the HARS were acceptable in this adolescent sample and were comparable to results reported for adults. The HARS exhibited good con struct validity, showing statistically significant relationships with independent self-report measures of generalized anxiety and other anxi ety variables. The factor structure of the HARS also was found to be s imilar to that found earlier with adults. Conclusions: These results d emonstrate that the HARS is a reliable and valid measure for the asses sment of global anxiety in the adolescent population.