Revised Children's Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS)

The Revised Children’s Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS) measures the severity of symptoms related to anxiety and depression in children and adolescents. It assesses specific disorders such as Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Panic Disorder, Social Phobia, Separation Anxiety Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). 

The RCADS can be completed by young people aged from 8 to 18 years. The parent version (the  RCADS-P) can also be completed by the parent or carer of young people aged 8-18.

Clinical experience indicates that RCADS is too developmentally advanced for use with young people with learning disabilities, but has been found to be useful for some young people with mild learning difficulties.

The Revised Children’s Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS) involves filling out a questionnaire where you rate how often certain feelings and behaviors describe you. There’s also a version for parents or caregivers to fill out about their child. You’ll see a series of statements, and you’ll choose from options like “Never” to “Always” to show how much each one applies to you.

The questionnaire contains 47 questions. The RCADS asked questions such as, ‘I have trouble sleeping’ and ‘I am tired a lot’ and uses a 4-point scale of ‘never’ ‘sometimes’ ‘often’ and ‘always’.

The questionnaire takes between five and ten minutes to administer. 

The RCADS is typically completed by children or adolescents themselves, but there is also a version called the Parent RCADS that can be completed by parents or caregivers. The self-report version allows young people to directly share their experiences, while the parent version provides an external perspective on the child’s symptoms.

Alternatively, in order to ensure that each item is understood by the respondent, or to gain additional information about each response, the questionnaires can be administered directly by the clinician who can ask follow-up questions.