Relatively little is known about the fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) experienced by youth. Contributing to this challenge is the scarcity of validated tools available to measure FCR experienced by children and adolescents under age 18. Our aim was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Cancer Worry Scale (CWS) in a pediatric sample. Participants (n = 70), 8-17 years of age, completed the CWS. We evaluated psychometric properties of both the CWS-6 and CWS-8 and conducted exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) for each to evaluate the number of factors, variance explained, and item fit. Correlations between the CWS and IUSC-12, PROMIS Anxiety-8a, PROMIS Depression-8a, and PedsQL were assessed for evidence of convergent and divergent validity. Individual CWS items had acceptable psychometric characteristics, except for Item 3, which performed poorly across analyses. Both CWS versions demonstrated floor effects, with no participants endorsing the highest scores. Internal consistency reliability was good for both the CWS-6 (α = 0.91) and CWS-8 (α = 0.92). EFA produced a single factor solution for both CWS versions, accounting for 62%-65% of total variance. Both CWS versions were predictably correlated with measures indicating convergent (Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale for Children-12, PROMIS Anxiety-8a, PROMIS Depression-8a; r = 0.464-0.535, p < 0.001) and divergent validity (PedsQL; r = -0.285 to -0.324, p < 0.05). Preliminary results are consistent with the extant literature and suggest the CWS may be used effectively with pediatric samples. Continued exploration of FCR experienced by pediatric survivors is needed.
Russell et al. (Mon,) studied this question.