title: The Koala Fear Questionnaire: a standardized self-report scale for assessing fears and fearfulness in pre-school and primary school children.
abstract: The Koala Fear Questionnaire (KFQ) is a standardized self-report scale for assessing fears and fearfulness in children aged between 4 and 12 years. The current article presents six studies which examined the reliability and validity of the KFQ. Study 1 (N=108) demonstrated that the visual fear scales of Koala bears as employed in the KFQ are highly comparable to the standard 3-point scales that are used in other childhood fear measures. Study 2 (N=163) provided support for the convergent validity of the KFQ in a sample of 8- to 14-year-old children. That is, the scale correlated substantially with alternative measures of childhood fear and anxiety. Study 3 (N=189) showed that the KFQ possesses good internal consistency and test-retest stability in a group of 8- to 11-year-old children. The results of Studies 4 (N=129) and 5 (N=176) indicated that the KFQ is suitable for children aged 4 to 6 years and demonstrated that the psychometric properties of the scale in younger children are highly similar to those obtained in older children. Study 6 (N=926) showed that the factor structure of the KFQ was theoretically meaningful: although the data clearly pointed in the direction of one factor of general fearfulness, spurs of the commonly found five-factor solution of childhood fear were found in the KFQ. Altogether, the KFQ seems to be a valuable addition to the instrumentarium of clinicians and researchers who are working with fearful and anxious children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical, Clinical and Experimental Psychology, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD, Maastricht, The Netherlands. p.muris@dep.unimaas.nl
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Muris
authors.forename: Cor
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Meesters
authors.forename: Birgit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mayer
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bogie
authors.forename: Monique
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Luijten
authors.forename: Elke
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Geebelen
authors.forename: Judith
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bessems
authors.forename: Carelijn
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Smit
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods*; D012723:Sex; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires