An item and factor analysis of the FSS(III)

In view of the apparent need for an anxiety scale specifically for South African Indians, this study examines the characteristics of one such group on a stimulus-oriented measure of anxiety. The 73-item Fear Survey Schedule III (FSS) was administered to a representative sample of Natal Indians.Results suggest that this scale has good construct validity and internal consistency for the Ss. Item analyses indicate that stimuli associated with ‘tissue damage’ or ‘interpersonal’ situations are most anxiety-provoking and also correlate highest with test score remainders. A factor analysis reveals three dimensions of situational anxiety for South African Indians: ‘physical danger’, ‘interpersonal situations’ and ‘animals’. These findings support the contention that situational trait anxiety is a multi-dimensional phenomenon.     

Anxiety disorders in African-American and white children

There are little available data on African-American children with anxiety disorders. Treatment-seeking African-American (n=30) and white children (n=139), with a current DSM-III-R anxiety disorder, were compared on sociodemographic background variables, clinical characteristics, and lifetime rates of specific DSM-III-R anxiety disorders. Overall, results suggested that the anxiety-disordered African-American and white children who sought treatment from an outpatient mental health facility were more similar than different. The two groups did, however, differ somewhat on several variables (trend only), including rates of school refusal, severity of primary anxiety disorder, lifetime prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder, and total scores on the Fear Survey Schedule for Children-Revised. More specifically, white children were more likely to present with school refusal and higher severity ratings, while African American children were more likely to have a history of posttraumatic stress disorder and score higher on the FSSC-R. The impact of these findings and the need for additional research are discussed.This study was supported in part by MH grant 40021 from the National Institute of Mental Health.     

Fears and related anxieties across three age groups of Mexican American and White children with disabilities

The authors compared levels and types of fears and anxieties in a sample of Mexican American children and adolescents with disabilities to a group of White children and adolescents with similar disabilities. Students (N = 238), parents, and teachers completed the Fear Survey Schedule for Children-Revised (T. H. Ollendick, 1983) and the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (C. R. Reynolds & B. O. Richmond, 1997). Levels of fear and anxiety were similar for both groups of students and were similarly underestimated by teachers. The groups of students differed in terms of their specific fears and the degree to which their parents recognized their children's fears (Mexican American parents were less accurate at rating their children's fears). Mexican American girls aged 7-10 and 11-13 years and White girls aged 14-18 years reported the highest scores; White boys aged 14-18 years reported the lowest scores.     

Examining Race/Ethnicity and Fears of Children and Adolescents in the United States: Differences Between White,African American,and Hispanic Populations

The American Fear Survey Schedule for Children (FSSC‐AM; J. J. Burnham, 1995, 2005) has been used to measure fears of children and adolescents. The FSSC‐AM is based on the 2nd revision of a psychometrically sound and well‐known fear scale (i.e., FSSC‐II; E. Gullone & N. J. King, 1992). In this study, age and gender differences, fear intensity scores, and fear prevalence scores were analyzed across race/ethnicity (i.e., White, African American, and Hispanic populations). Multivariate analyses of variance yielded significant effects for race/ethnicity.     

Empirical fear profiles among American youth

Fears among children can range from relatively innocuous fears of simple objects to significant phobias that affect youths' everyday functioning in the home, school, or community environments. This study investigated empirically derived fear profiles among American youth ages 7-19 (N=556). Based upon youths' scores on the 5 factors of the Fear Survey Schedule for Children-II (FSSC-II; Burnham & Gullone (Behav Res Ther, 35, 1997)), multistage Euclidean grouping was applied and produced 5 replicable fear cluster profiles with unique contours. Logistic regression odds ratios revealed specific associations of profile group membership with demographic characteristics such as child age, sex, and ethnicity.     

Validity of the Fear Survey Schedule in phobia research: A laboratory test

The Fear Survey Schedule III, developed by Wolpe and Lang (1969, 1977), is used frequently to classify subjects as phobic or nonphobic. Subjects selected for their intense-fear scores on blood, fire, bat, and snake items did not significantly differ from no-fear subjects on an objective behavioral assessment test. Analyses of subject verbal reports suggest several possibilities for the inability to discriminate between fearful and nonfearful subjects. Researchers are cautioned about the use of the Fear Survey Schedule for selecting phobic subjects without supporting evidence.     

Contemporary Fears of Children and Adolescents: Coping and Resiliency in the 21st Century

This study was prompted by the continual exposure of youth to disasters (e.g., 9/11, Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina, school violence) and the call for revisions in fear assessments to reflect contemporary fears. Fears of 1,033 students in Grades 2–12 were examined using the American Fear Survey Schedule for Children (J. J. Burnham, 2005). Results indicated that new fears have emerged in the 21st century, alerting counselors to consider preventative and intervention activities to address contemporary fears.     

Dimensional structure and psychopathology correlates of the fear survey schedule (FSS-III) in a phobic population: A factorial definition of agoraphobia

The responses of 703 non-institutionalized phobics to the Fear Survey Schedule (FSS-III) were factor-analyzed utilizing a principal components procedure. Factors previously identified in student, adolescent and ‘non-phobic patient’ populations—(I) Social Anxiety, (III) Fears related to Bodily Injury, Death and Illness. (IV) Fear of Display to Sexual and Aggressive Scenes, (V) Small Animal Fears—were replicated. Additionally, an Agoraphobia (II) factor, corroborating recent findings by Hallam and Hafner (1978), and pointing to the specificity of this fear, emerged. Due to substantially high intercorrelations found, the Social Inadequacy dimension of the Symptom Checklist (SCL-90) and the Social Anxiety scale (I), on the one hand, and the Agoraphobic dimension of the SCL-90 and the Agoraphobia scale (II), on the other, could be used interchangeably with phobic populations. A higher-order factor analysis run on psychopathology scales employed, including factored FSS scales, yielded three components, (1) Neuroticism, (2) Phobia and (3) Agoraphobia. Opportunity was taken to define the Agoraphobic Syndrome empirically. A specific Somatization dimension was as highly related to Neuroticism, as to the higher-order Agoraphobic cluster, clearly supporting clinical observations with regard to the Agoraphobic syndrome. Some interesting findings are focused upon and discussed.     

Manifest anxiety and fearfulness in children and adolescents.

The relationship between self-reported fear and anxiety was examined in a large sample of normal Australian children and adolescents. Participants completed the Fear Survey Schedule for Children--Revised (Ollendick, 1983) and the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (Reynolds & Richmond, 1978). Following an examination of the internal consistency of these instruments, correlational analyses were conducted on anxiety and fear scores. Fear scores were shown to be sensitive to anxiety, sex, and age groups. Furthermore, discriminant analysis showed that high-anxiety children indicated a greater fear of items related to failure and criticism than did low-anxiety children. Other issues, including the content overlap between the two scales used in the investigation, are discussed.     

A Greek-Language Inventory of Fears: Psychometric Properties and Factor Structure of Self-Reports of Fears on the Hellenic Fear Survey Schedule

The structure of fearfulness and the psychometric properties of a Greek-language version of the Fear Survey Schedule were studied in a sample of normal Greek adults. Overall summary scores were higher for women than for men, had satisfactory temporal stability and internal consistency, and were useful in discriminating levels of phobic anxiety independent of levels of depression as assessed by a concurrent self-report measure. However, the temporal stabilities of responses for many items were inadequate for the reliable identification of levels of fear of specific events and objects. A factor analysis yielded five components that were conceptually similar to those obtained abroad. Subscales based on component items were psychometrically reliable. In comparison with American subjects, Greek subjects rated similar items as most fearful, but reported higher levels of fears of these items, reflecting either higher levels of fears, greater disclosure, or cultural differences in the meaning of fear ratings.     

Cross-cultural aspects of fears in African children and adolescents

The purpose of this study was to compare level and type of fears in Nigerian and Kenyan children using the Fear Survey Schedule for Children, Revised (FSSC-R; [Ollendick, T.H. (1983). Reliability and validity of the Revised Fear Survey Schedule for Children (FSSC-R). Behaviour Research and Therapy, 21, 685-692]). A total of 852 males and females between the ages of 8 and 17 were surveyed. Results indicated that Nigerian children reported significantly higher total fear than Kenyan children and that scores from both countries were higher than those found in the United States, Australia and China. This suggests that the cultures of Kenya and Nigeria may share a common variable that makes reporting of fears greater than that reported by children of other world cultures. In addition, Christian children in both countries reported higher levels of fear on several factors than Muslim children, indicating that Islamic beliefs may encourage children to report less fear or to deal with their fears better than Christian beliefs. Finally, children between the ages of 8 and 12 reported greater fear of the unknown than children between 13 and 17 years of age. Overall, these findings suggest that important cultural, religious and age differences exist for levels of childhood fears reported in Nigeria and Kenya.     

Fear of criticism in washers,checkers and phobics

Fear of criticism in patients who manifested specific phobias, washing rituals and checking rituals was investigated. Six items from the Fear Survey Schedule measuring degree of anxiety to criticism were selected for this purpose. Results indicated that both washers and checkers showed more sensitivity to criticism than did phobics, while washers and checkers did not differ significantly. The implications of these findings for treatment are discussed.     

Reliability and validity of the revised fear survey schedule for children (FSSC-R)

In this study, the validation of a Revised Fear Survey Schedule for Children (FSSC-R) is detailed. Psychometric properties of the scale are reported for two normal samples and one clinical sample of school-phobic children. Initial analyses indicate that the FSSC-R possesses high internal consistency, high test-retest reliability and acceptable stability over time. Further, it adequately discriminates between normal and clinical samples, has acceptable convergent and discriminant validity and possesses a meaningful factor structure. The potential clinical utility of the scale is discussed, and important social and developmental issues affecting the development and expression of fear in children are addressed.     

Children's Fears: A Pre‐9/11 and Post‐9/11 Comparison Using the American Fear Survey Schedule for Children

Children are influenced by the salient events surrounding them (e.g., 9/11 terrorist attacks, Hurricane Katrina, massacre at Virginia Tech). In this study, the author examined fears of children and adolescents in Grades 2–12 in a pre‐ and post‐September 11, 2001, comparison using the American Fear Survey Schedule for Children (FSSC‐AM; J. J. Burnham, 1995, 2005). Differences across age, gender, and year were examined. Multivariate analyses of variance yielded significant effects for terror fear items on the FSSC‐AM.     

Monitoring and fearfulness in children

The current study investigated the relationship between the monitoring coping style and fearfulness in a child population. A total of 183 primary school children aged between 10 and 12 filled out the Child Behavioral Style Scale (CBSS), which purports to measure dispositional monitoring, and the revised version of Fear Survey Schedule for Children (FSSC). It was found that high monitors were more fearful than low monitors. This result is in agreement with the findings of previous research in adult populations.     

Specific fears as predictors of generalized anxiety in children

The study investigated the relationship between fear and anxiety in childhood. One hundred fifty-one children aged 6 to 11 years (mean=8.7 years) completed the Fear Survey Schedule for Children-Revised (FSSC-R) and the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS). Correlational analyses demonstrated that the FSSC-R and each of the fear factors were significantly correlated with each other and with the RCMAS score. A stepwise regression procedure was used to determine if the FSSC-R or any of its five factors was significantly related to scores on the RCMAS. Results indicated that Factor 1 (Failure and Criticism) accounted for 31% of the variance (p < .0001)and Factor 2 (Fear of the Unknown) accounted for an additional 1% of the variance (p < .03)in the RCMAS scores. The relationship between these results and those from a similar study with adults (Goetsch, Tishelman, & Adams, 1987), as well as how the results add to an understanding of childhood anxiety, is discussed.This study was supported by BRSG Grant S07RR0714917 from the Biomedical Research Support Grant Program, Division of Research Resources, National Institute of Health, to the Research Foundation of the State University of New York at Binghamton.     

What is the revised Fear Survey Schedule for Children measuring?

This study was designed to investigate parameters of children's fear in terms of frequency of fearful thoughts and avoidance behaviour. It is suggested that current measures such as the Fear Survey Schedule for Children--Revised (FSSC-R) do not assess fearful behaviour in the sense of the occurrence of fearful responding in daily life, but rather reflect a negative affective response to the thought of occurrence of specific events. A modified version of the FSSC-R examined the frequency of fearful thoughts/feelings and avoidance activities amongst 376 children aged 7-12 yr. Contrary to predictions, it was found that children reported high levels of fearful thoughts and avoidance behaviour to those items identified as the greatest fears on the FSSC-R, namely fears of injury, illness, death and danger. These events were typically of low probability (e.g. earthquakes) and the question was raised as to what children are responding to when they are asked to rate their fearful responses. The same pattern of results was reflected in older compared to younger children. It is suggested that even when children are asked to rate frequency of fearful thoughts or avoidance behaviour, they tend to respond to fear questionnaire items according to their affective response to the image or thought of the stimulus situation rather than their actual fear responses. Both the FSSC-R and the modified version were found to discriminate between teacher nominated high and low fearful children and to correlate significantly with a self report measure of anxiety.     

What is the Revised Fear Survey Schedule for Children measuring?

The Fear Survey Schedule for Children-Revised (FSSC-R) is a widely used self-report questionnaire that purports to measure the number of fears and the overall level of fearfulness in children. A number of studies have shown that the ten most common childhood fears can be found on the Danger and Death subscale of the FSSC-R, with upwards of 50% of children endorsing such fears. However, some researchers (e.g., H. McCathie & S.H. Spence, 1991; Behaviour Research and Therapy, 29, 495-502) have questioned the validity of these findings, suggesting that these items do not reflect actual childhood fears that children have or experience on a daily or regular basis. Rather, they suggest that children are responding to these fear items as if they were actually occurring to them in the here and now. The current study examined the occurrence of five Danger and Death fears from the FSSC-R (i.e., "Not being able to breathe", "Being hit by a car or truck", "Falling from high places", "Bombing attacks or being invaded", and "Fire or getting burned") in a sample of normal school children aged eight to 12 years (N=102). More specifically, we used three different methods to asses these fears: (1). prevalence as determined by the standard FSSC-R procedure, (2). prevalence as determined by a fear list procedure, and (3). actual occurrence or prevalence of these fears in the past week, as determined by a diary method. Results indicated that while these fears ranked high when using the standard FSSC-R procedure, they were considerably less common when using the fear list procedure, and had a low probability of actual occurrence on a daily basis, as well as possessing a short duration and low intensity. Implications for the assessment of fears and the use of self-report measures like the FSSC-R are briefly discussed.     

Do childhood anxiety measures measure anxiety?

The Fear Survey Schedule for Children-Revised (FSSC-R), Revised-Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS), and the Modified State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC-M) are three widely used self-report measures of childhood anxiety. While previous studies have established the reliability of these measures, their validity in discriminating anxious from non-anxious youngsters remains to be established. The present study examines the discriminant validity of the three measures by comparing clinic referred samples of boys with an anxiety disorder (n=105) or ADHD (n=59) with a community sample of never-psychiatrically-ill boys (n=49). Results indicated that the two patient groups differed significantly from the never-psychiatrically-ill group on the RCMAS and STAIC-M, but the anxious and ADHD groups did not differ from each other. None of the three groups differed on the FSSC-R. The implications of these findings for the assessment of childhood anxiety disorders are discussed.     

General and specific fears in referred and self-referred adult patients with extreme dental anxiety.

The levels of, and relationships between, dental fear and general fears and phobias were studied in 109 adult patients at a specialized dental fear clinic using two dental fear scales (the Dental Anxiety Scale and the Dental Fear Survey) together with the Fear Survey Schedule II (FSS-II) and some additional fear items. Referred and self-referred fearful dental patients answered mailed questionnaires in conjunction to being put on a 1 yr waiting list for treatment. Among feared objects and situations the separate item 'pain' revealed the highest mean scores for both men and women, followed by fear of suffocating, death of a loved one and sharp objects among women, and death of a loved one, suffocating and hypodermic needles among men. With few exceptions, women scored higher than men. The frequencies of extreme fears (6 and 7 on a 7-point scale) were high and 92.7% of the patients reported at least one extreme fear. Half of the subjects (49.5%) reported five fears or more. It was also shown that a number of FSS-II items correlated to dental fear indicating a relationship between general and dental fear. These results indicated that a large proportion of these dentally fearful individuals were prone to fear-associated reactions and behaviors, which has previously been shown to negatively influence the prognosis of treatment.