title: The factor structure of The Fear Survey Schedule for Children--II in Trinidadian children and adolescents.
abstract: Part of understanding normal and abnormal fear in children and adolescents is having knowledge of how they acquire fears and of how fears change across development. One way to examine the relative contributions of heredity and environment to the experience of fear is to study fear across cultures. The Fear Survey Schedule for Children-II (FSSC-II; Gullone, E., & King, N. J. (1992). Psychometric evaluation of a revised fear survey schedule for children and adolescents. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 33, 987-998) is one measure that has some evidence for cross-cultural validity. The present analysis examined the factor structure of the FSSC-II scores of 884 Trinidadian children and adolescents. Factor consistency across age, sex, and nationality (Trinidadian and American) was examined by calculating the coefficients of congruence for each pair of conceptually similar factors. Results indicated a five-factor structure for the overall sample. Although the solution was conceptually similar to those reported in other studies that used versions of the FSSC, the obtained structure was not congruent across age, sex, or nationality.
authors.affiliation: Department of Educational and School Psychology and Special Education, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA. aab177@psu.edu
authors.forename: April Bryington
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Fisher
authors.forename: Barbara A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Schaefer
authors.forename: Marley W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Watkins
authors.forename: Frank C
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Worrell
authors.forename: Tracey E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Hall
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010555:Personality Inventory; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D002666:Psychology, Child; D011594:Psychometrics; D014300:Trinidad and Tobago; D014481:United States