Abstract
Purpose:
The purpose was to investigate the validity and reliability of short STAI (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) for measuring children's anxiety in connection with procedures in hospital.
Background:
The children's level of anxiety during hospitalization can cause problems and it should be evaluated with a valid and reliable instrument. STAIC-S (STAI for children) has previously been validated in children for this purpose but may be too complex to use. Short STAI has only been evaluated in adults and should be tested in children before it can be used.
Methods:
Children aged five to 16 filled in both STAIC-S and short STAI before and after an examination or treatment at the hospital.
Results:
Twenty children were included. Satisfactory internal reliability was found for short STAI with Cronbachs's alpha 0.82. Correlation coefficients between the instruments were 0.88 before and 0.75 after the procedure. Significantly lower values were found after compared to before demonstrating constructive validity. Short STAI was easy to fill in but seven of 16 participants received help from their parents.
Conclusion:
Short STAI was shown to be a reliable and valid instrument for measuring anxiety in children, but a larger study is needed to confirm the validity and reliability further.