The Fear Survey Schedule for Children‐II: a validity examination across response format and instruction type

Abstract

AbstractThe most commonly used tool for the assessment of normal fear, is without doubt, the Fear Survey Schedule. However, despite its advantages, critics have questioned the validity of the Fear Survey Schedule. The present study extended upon recent research which has addressed this concern by administering three different versions of the Fear Survey Schedule for Children‐II (FSSC‐II). Each of the three conditions involved ratings of fear level intensity, and one condition also included fear frequency ratings in order to enable comparison between fear frequency versus intensity ratings. A total of 439 adolescents aged 11 to 18 years participated in the study. Following the validation of the modified FSSC‐II forms, overall and subscale fear levels were compared across the different FSSC‐II versions. Whilst no overall difference in self‐reported fear was found across the different instruction types, a difference was found between reports of fear intensity versus frequency on the death and danger factor of the FSSC‐II, with fear intensity reports being significantly higher than frequency reports. Also older female adolescents significantly discriminated between imagined and daily fear intensity scoring higher on the former. A similar difference was found in relation to animal fears for older adolescents. The present findings therefore provide additional support for the validity of the Fear Survey Schedule in the assessment of fear. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.