PSYCHOMETRIC EVALUATION OF A REVISED FEAR SURVEY SCHEDULE FOR CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

This study describes the second revision of a fear survey schedule for children which was originally developed by Scherer and Nakamura in the 1960's. The revised instrument (FSSC-II) was psychometrically evaluated on a sample of 918 children and adolescents aged between 7 and 18 years, attending regular primary and secondary schools in urban, suburban and rural areas of Victoria. It was demonstrated to have high internal consistency. The convergent and divergent validity of the revised instrument was examined by correlating it with conceptually related as well as distinct scales, respectively. Such analyses demonstrated sound validity. A five-factor solution almost identical to that reported for the FSSC-R, is described as are age and gender differences. The most common fears on the revised instrument are also reported.