title: Measuring dental fear using the CFSS-DS. Do children and parents agree?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In most studies, the parental version of the CFSS-DS is used; however, no information is available concerning the extent to which parents are able to report dental fear on behalf of their children.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study aims to assess whether parents are accurate reporters of their child's dental fear.
  
  
  METHODS
  The CFSS-DS was filled out by 326 children in a classroom setting and by 167 parents (mostly mothers) at home on behalf of their child. Intraclass correlation coefficients were used as a measure of agreement between both CFSS-DS versions, and reasons for nonagreement were assessed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean CFSS-DS for children was 21.15 (SD = 6.4) and for parents 23.26 (SD = 6.7). The intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.57. After selection of the 73.1% most accurate reporting parents, the ICC was 0.90. In general, parents estimate the dental fear of their children higher than their children do (P ≤ 0.001), whereas parents of high anxious children (HAC) estimate this fear lower, and parents of low anxious children (LAC) estimate this fear higher. Anxious parents (AP) estimate the dental fear of their children significantly higher than nonanxious parents (NAP) (P ≤ 0.001), but the children of AP do not estimate their own dental fear higher than children of NAP.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In general, parents tend to estimate the dental fear of their children slightly higher than their children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cariology, Endodontology and Pedodontology, Academic Centre for Dentistry Amsterdam (ACTA), University of Amsterdam and VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam. j.krikken@acta.nl
authors.forename: Janneke B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Krikken
authors.forename: Arjen J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: van Wijk
authors.forename: Jacob M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: ten Cate
authors.forename: Jaap S J
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Veerkamp
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D016854:Dental Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis*; D019140:Dental Care for Children / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008347:Manifest Anxiety Scale; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires