title: Brief report: factor structure of the Childhood Illness Attitude Scales (CIAS).
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the factor structure of the Childhood Illness Attitude Scales (CIAS). The CIAS is a 35-item self-report measure based on the Illness Attitudes Scales, designed for use with school-age children. The CIAS measures fears, beliefs, and attitudes associated with health anxiety and abnormal illness behavior in childhood.
  
  
  METHODS
  CIAS item responses for 201 school-age children were subjected to principal-components analysis with oblique rotation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The CIAS was best conceptualized as comprising four factors: fears, help seeking, treatment experience, and symptom effects. Further factor analysis supported the notion that the CIAS can also be conceptualized as having a hierarchical structure, with four lower-order factors loading onto a single higher-order factor of health anxiety.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results suggest that the CIAS possesses good psychometric properties, including factorial validity and internal consistency, and appears to be a psychometrically sound instrument for measuring children's health anxiety.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.
authors.forename: Kristi D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: Gordon J G
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Asmundson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D003469:Culture; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires