Home
Assessments
Social anxiety (SCARED)
Free screeners
Other screeners

Social Anxiety Test for Kids & Teens (SCARED)

This quiz includes seven questions from the validated SCARED anxiety screening (Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders), focused on children’s and teens’ reactions to unfamiliar people, the feeling of being watched, and social situations. A teen can answer for themselves, or a parent can answer about their child.

7 questions
About 2 minutes
Ages 8-17
SCARED subscale
Free & private

What a SCARED (social anxiety items) score can and cannot tell you

These seven items are the social anxiety subscale of the SCARED, for ages 8 to 18.

Clinicians read the subscale inside the full SCARED and an interview; a high score on seven items is a prompt to look further, not a result on its own.

A parent-completed checklist is a screen, not an assessment. Scores here can run higher or lower than a clinician would find, and a clinician would not diagnose from this form alone.

In a crisis right now? Call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline), text HOME to 741741, or call 911 for an emergency.

About this social anxiety screening

This screener uses the social anxiety subscale of the SCARED (Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders), a validated instrument developed by Dr. Boris Birmaher and colleagues. The US Preventive Services Task Force, which recommends screening children and adolescents aged 8 to 18 for anxiety, names the SCARED as one of only two anxiety screening instruments widely used in clinical practice. The seven items ask about the situations where social anxiety shows up: unfamiliar people, talking in groups, performing while others watch, and parties. This screener cannot diagnose or rule out social anxiety disorder; rather, it suggests when a professional evaluation might be necessary.

Shyness and social anxiety are not the same thing. Shyness is a temperament; social anxiety disorder is fear strong enough to make a child avoid class participation, friendships, or activities they would otherwise enjoy. A score of 8 or higher is the cutoff the SCARED authors use for this subscale, and it points toward possible social anxiety disorder, which affects roughly 9 percent of teens. Worth knowing where that number comes from: it was derived from the full 41-item questionnaire, so on seven items alone it is a prompt to look further rather than a finished result.

Social anxiety is one of the most treatable forms of anxiety. Cognitive behavioral therapy, often with gradual real-life practice in feared situations, has strong evidence of efficacy in treating kids and teens. If the results of this screener suggest an evaluation for social anxiety disorder, Emora Health offers online therapy with licensed child and adolescent clinicians, typically within days of sign-up.

How the social anxiety questions are scored

The seven social anxiety answers add up to one score, which is read against the cutoff the SCARED authors give for this group of questions.

That cutoff came from studies where children answered all 41 SCARED questions. On seven questions alone, it is a reason to look further rather than a finished result. The full SCARED covers four more areas, and a clinician reads this one inside that picture.

A screener is not a diagnosis. Cutoffs are set to catch more than they miss, so a high score is a reason to talk to a clinician, not an answer.

Common questions

Shyness warms up with time; social anxiety avoids. If your child regularly refuses activities, cannot speak in class, or spends days dreading social events, that pattern is worth screening. The cutoff on this screener is one honest signal of potential social anxiety, not a verdict or diagnosis.

The seven items come from the SCARED, one of the best-validated child anxiety measurement instruments, and this quiz applies the published subscale cutoff of 8. A screening can only show whether symptoms are in a range worth evaluating. It cannot diagnose social anxiety disorder.

Both versions are validated. Teens usually know their inner fear better than parents can observe, so self-report is the default when your teen is willing. If they are not, the parent version is a solid starting point, and comparing notes afterward is often revealing on its own.

A score at or above 8 suggests an evaluation is worthwhile. A clinician will look at the full anxiety picture, since social anxiety often travels with generalized worry or separation fears. Treatment, usually cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), works well and tends to work faster the earlier it starts.

Yes. Licensed therapists at Emora treat social anxiety in children and teens online, usually within days of sign-up, and it’s covered by most major insurance plans. Medication support can be added when a clinician recommends it.

References

Birmaher, B., Brent, D. A., Chiappetta, L., Bridge, J., Monga, S., & Baugher, M. (1999). Psychometric properties of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED): A replication study. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 38(10), 1230-1236. https://doi.org/10.1097/00004583-199910000-00011 Official source

SCARED developed by Boris Birmaher, MD and colleagues, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh.