%0 Journal Article %T Brazilian Portuguese version of the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale (SCAS-Brasil) %A DeSousa %A Diogo A. %A Petersen %A Circe S. %A Behs %A Rafaela %A Manfro %A Gisele G. %A Koller %A Silvia H. %J Trends in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy %D 2012 %I Associa??o de Psiquiatria do Rio Grande do Sul %R 10.1590/S2237-60892012000300006 %X objective: to describe the cross-cultural adaptation of the spence children's anxiety scale (scas) for use in brazil. methods: cross-cultural adaptation followed a four-step process, based on specialized literature: 1) investigation of conceptual and item equivalence; 2) translation and back-translation; 3) pretest; and 4) investigation of operational equivalence. all these procedures were carried out for both the child and the parent versions of the scas. results: a final brazilian version of the instrument, named scas-brasil, was defined and is presented. conclusion: the scas-brasil instrument seems to be very similar to the original scas in terms of conceptual and item equivalence, semantics, and operational equivalence, suggesting that future cross-cultural studies may benefit from this early version. as a result, a new instrument is now available for the assessment of childhood anxiety symptoms in community, clinical, and research settings. %K anxiety %K anxiety disorders %K cross-cultural adaptation. %U http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S2237-60892012000300006&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en