Young children have social worries too: Validation of a brief parent report measure of social worries in children aged 4-8 years

•Psychometric assessment of a brief social anxiety questionnaire for young children.•Parents of children aged 4-8 years answered the questionnaire at two time points.•All items were applicable to the age-range and good internal consistency was found.•A one-factor structure, of all items, was found at Time 1 and confirmed at Time 2.•Initial evidence was found for test-retest reliability and convergent validity.

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Social Worries Anxiety Index for Young children (SWAIY), adapted from the Social Worries Questionnaire-Parent version (SWQ-P; Spence, 1995), as a measure of social anxiety in young children. 169 parents of children aged four to eight years from a community sample completed the SWAIY and a standardized measure of anxiety; the SWAIY was completed again two weeks later. Parents deemed the items appropriate and relevant to children of this age. The SWAIY demonstrated excellent ( > 0.80) internal consistency and a one-factor model. Test-retest reliability was strong (r = 0.87) and evidence of convergent validity (r > .50) was found. The study provides initial evidence for the validation of SWAIY as a measure of social anxiety in children aged four to eight years old. This questionnaire is ideal for investigating social anxiety over early childhood and the relationship between early social worries and later anxiety disorders.