Citation

Kushnir J, Gothelf D, Sadeh A. Isr. J. Psychiatry Relat. Sci. 2015; 52(1): 61-65.

Affiliation

The Adler Center for Research in Child Development and Psychopathology. Department of Psychology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Israel Psychiatric Association, Publisher Israel Science Publishers)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

25841112

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Although excessive fears are common in preschool children, validated assessment tools for this age are lacking. Our aim was to modify and provide preliminary evidence of the utility of a preschoolers' fear screening tool, a parent-reported Fear Survey Schedule for Preschool Children (FSS-PC).

METHODS: 109 Israeli preschool children (aged 4-6 years) with chronic night time fears (NF) and 30 healthy children (controls) participated. The FSS-PC analysis included: 1) internal reliability, 2) correlations between FSS-PC scores and Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) measures, 3) differences between NF and a comparison sample of FSS-PC scores, and 4) FSS-PC sensitivity in detecting change in NF following an intervention for NF.

RESULTS: There were low-to-medium positive correlations between the FSS-PC scores and several internalizing scales of the CBCL measures. FSS-PC scores in the NF group were significantly higher than the control children's score. FSS-PC scores had adequate internal reliability and were also sensitive for detecting significant changes in fear levels following behavioral interventions. LIMITATIONS: Unique cultural and environmental circumstances and specific study group.

CONCLUSIONS: This new version of the FSS-PC may provide clinicians with a novel and useful screening tool for early assessment of fear- and anxiety-related phenomena of preschool children.

Language: en