Clinical usefulness of the PANAS-C in for adolescents

Anxiety and depression are common conditions in children and adolescents, which have a high degree of co-morbidity. The tripartite model posits, negative affectivity is a common component to anxiety and depression, low positive affectivity (anhedonia) is related to depression, and physiological hyperarousal is related to anxiety (Clark & Watson, 1991). Theory suggests that NA and PA are independent, but more recent research suggests that NA and PA may be negatively related in children and adolescents (Crook et al., 1998; Chorpita & Dalieden, 2002).

The Positive and Negative Affectivity Scale – Child version (PANAS-C) was developed to measure negative and positive affectivity within this model and is used in practice to help distinguish between anxiety and depression (Laurent et al., 1999). There is evidence of reliability and validity of the measure (e.g., Laurent et al., 1999) but, there were inconsistencies found with the model. PA had a statistically significant correlation with NA (Chorpita & Dalieden 2002; Crook et al., 1998) and PA had a significant negative correlation with anxiety (Lonigan et al., 1999).

This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the PANAS-C in an outpatient, sample of adolescents. The advantage of this sample is that it is the population of interest and a developmentally homogenous group. The objectives were: 1) to assess the reliability and validity of the PANAS-C and 2) to determine if NA and PA are independent.

Methods:

Surveys were mailed to a random sample of adolescents (N = 185; 61.1% response rate) who were currently in mental health treatment for an anxiety and / or depressive disorder. Participants completed the Positive and Negative Affectivity Scale for Children and the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale for the measure of anxiety and depression (Chorpita, et al., 2000).

Results:

The scale evidenced good reliability with Cronbach's alphas for PA = .92 and NA .91. Using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), all items loaded on their appropriate subscale. NA was correlated with anxiety (r = .68, p < .001) and depression (r = .60, p < .001) and PA was negatively related to depression (r = -.42, p < .05). NA and PA were negatively related (r = -.36, p < .001) and PA was negatively related to anxiety (r = -.30, p < .01). Using CFA, the data did not fit the model well.

Conclusions and Implications:

There was good evidence for reliability and convergent validity. The PANAS-C did not evidence discriminant validity as well. PA was negatively related to anxiety and NA and PA had a negative relationship, which is inconsistent with the model. These results are consistent with the previous research. The PANAS-C was not effective in differentiating between anxiety and depression in this sample of adolescents. A second and alternative explanation is that negative affectivity and low positive affectivity in adolescents are not independent. This suggested that it may not be as important to focus on discriminating between anxiety and depression in adolescents, but to focus on the core component of these two disorders, negative affectivity.