Introduction: Anxiety disorders typically begin in late childhood and manifest in most individuals by the end of adolescence. Their prevalence may be higher than reported due to internalisation of symptoms and reluctance to seek medical care, emphasising the importance of the present study. Aim: To determine the prevalence and patterns of anxiety disorders in school settings using the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) questionnaire. Materials and Methods: The present descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at Life School in the Char-I-Sharif area of Budgam district, Kashmir division of Jammu and Kashmir, India, over a period of one month in August 2024. Data were collected by administering the SCARED questionnaire to 60 students from classes 8th to 10th, selected using stratified random sampling. Only students who were willing to participate and had no previous history of psychiatric treatment were included. All parameters of the SCARED questionnaire were assessed. Statistical analysis was performed using the Chi-square test and Fisher’s exact test. Results: A total of 60 students with uniform distribution across classes and genders were evaluated using the SCARED questionnaire. Among them, 40 students (66.66%) were older than 15 years, and the most common family type was nuclear. The prevalence of panic disorder with significant somatic symptoms, Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD), social anxiety disorder, separation anxiety disorder, and school avoidance was 48 (80%), 31 (51.7%), 21 (35%), 39 (65%), and 31 (51.7%) respectively. The proportion of students affected by more than one disorder varied across age groups and anxiety subtypes. A statistically significant association was found between certain anxiety subtypes and older age as well as female gender. Conclusion: The present study reports a much higher prevalence of anxiety disorders with a female preponderance in this region, highlighting the need for further studies to determine whether this finding is attributable to small sample size, ethnicity, sociocultural factors, or genetic influences.
Irshad et al. (Sat,) studied this question.