Pmwl. PII: S0191-8869(97)00190-6 k/ilk/. Dl/f. Vol. 24, No. 4, pp. 575-578, 1998 (: 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved Printed in Great Britain 0191-8869198 $19.00+0.00 Common fears and their relationship to anxiety disorders symptomatology in normal children Peter Muris,*’ Harald Merckelbach,’ Birgit Mayer2 and Cor Meesters’ ‘Department of Psychology, Cie. Psychology, and ‘Department of Experimental Abnormal Psycho1og.v. Maastricht Uniuersitv. P.O. Bo.u 616. 6200 MD Maastricht. The Netherlands (Receioed 19 June 1997) Summary-The current study examined the relationship between the revised Fear Survey Schedule for Children (FSSC-R) and anxiety disorders symptomatology in normal children. First, professionals were asked to relate the IO most common FSSC-R items to separate childhood anxiety disorders. Then, primary school children (N = 178) completed a short version of the FSSC-R and the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED). The SCARED is a questionnaire that consists of 9 subscales each measuring the symptoms of a separate, DSM-IV defined anxiety disorder in children (e.g. separation anxiety disorder, panic disorder, etc.). Professionals’ anxiety disorder classification of the FSSC-R items were validated against SCARED data. Results revealed that professionals related most FSSC-R items to specific phobia and generalized anxiety disorder. These relationships were supported by the SCARED data. However, FSSC-R items were also found to be connected to less obvious SCARED subscales. Thus, FSSC-R items do not point in the direction of one particular anxiety disorder. The implications of this finding for the use of the FSSC-R are briefly discussed. C 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved INTRODUCTION Anxiety disorders are one of the most prevalent forms of child psychopathology, affecting about 10% of children and adolescents (Bernstein & Borchardt, 1991). The latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) recognizes the following anxiety disorders in children and adolescents: panic disorder, separation anxiety disorder, social phobia, specific phobia, generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic or acute stress disorder. Research has shown that anxiety disorders symptoms are also common in normal children. For example, Bell-Dolan et al. (1990) found that overanxious disorder symptoms and subclinical phobias were present in 20-30% of their sample of never-psychiatrically-ill children. Structured interviews such as the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule (ADIS; Silverman & Nelles, 1988) and questionnaires such as the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED; Birmaher et al.. 1997) have been construed to reliably determine anxiety disorders and related symptomatology in youths. Furthermore, self-report rating scales have been developed to assess global anxiety symptoms. These scales are important because they can be employed as therapy outcome measures or epidemiological instruments. One widely used scale is the revised version of the Fear Survey Schedule for Children (FSSC-R; Ollendick, 1983). The FSSC-R lists a wide range of potentially fear-evoking stimuli. Children are asked to indicate on a 3-point scale how much they fear these stimuli (“none”. “some”, “a lot”). While the FSSC-R has been proven to be a valuable index of general fearfulness in treatment outcome studies (Kendall, 1994; Barrett et al., 1996) little is known about the relationship between specific FSSC-R items and anxiety disorders in children. Although some items clearly refer to a specific phobia (e.g. “spiders”, “snakes”, ” germs or getting a serious disease”) or social phobia connection to certain anxiety disorders (e.g. (e.g. “being criticized”, ” being teased”), other items have a less straightforward “being hit by a car or truck”, “bombing attacks”, ” burglar breaking into the house”). This has led some authors to question the validity of the FSSC-R. For example, McCathie and Spence (1991) argue that the FSSC-R does not measure actual fear, but rather reflects children’s negative affective response to the thought ofoccurrence of specific events. If this line of reasoning is correct, one would expect that items such as “being hit by a car or truck”. “bombing attacks”, and so on. are related to children’s tendency to worry, which is, of course, a core symptom of generalized anxiety disorder. So far. there has been only one study that examined the relationship between the FSSC-R and childhood anxiety disorders. In that study, Last er al. (1989) compared the FSSC-R scores of children with different anxiety disorder diagnoses, i.e. separation anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and phobic disorder (either social or simple phobia) of school. Results showed that the diagnostic groups could not be discriminated on the basis of their FSSC-R total score. However, significant differences among the groups were found with regard to fear of specific FSSC-R items. As expected, children with separation anxiety disorder more often reported fear of “getting lost in a strange place”. whereas children with generalized anxiety disorders more frequently had fears focusing on social evaluative and performance concerns. In addition, some unexpected connections between FSSC-R items and anxiety disorders were found. For example, children with separation anxiety disorder more frequently reported fear of “bee stings” and “germs, or getting a serious disease” than children with generalized anxiety disorder or school phobia. Taken together, the findings of Last and colleagues suggest that there is a connection between childhood fears as determined by the FSSC-R and anxiety disorders in children. but that this connection is not very specific. The present study further investigated the connection between the FSSC-R and childhood anxiety disorders symp- *To whom all correspondence Box 616. 6200 MD Maastricht, should be addressed: The Netherlands, Dr P Muris. 575 Maastricht University, Department of Psychology, PO 576 Notes and Shorter Communications tomatology in a sample of normal children. This was done in two steps. First of all, professionals were asked to relate the 10 most common FSSC-R items to separate DSM-IV defined anxiety disorders. Secondly, a pool of children recruited from regular school classes completed a short version of the FSSC-R and the SCARED. The SCARED is a questionnaire that consists of 9 subscales each measuring the symptoms of a DSM-IV defined anxiety disorder in children (e.g. panic disorder, separation anxiety disorder, etc.). Professionals’ anxiety disorder classification of the separate FSSC-R items were validated against SCARED data. METHOD Three professionals (a child psychologist, a mental health scientist and a research psychologist) were given a list with the top-10 FSSC-R fears (Ollendick et al.. 1989. 1991; Ollendick & King, 1994; Muris et al., 1997a,b): death or dead people, getting lost in a strange place, bombing attacks-being invaded, spiders, a burglar breaking into our house, fire-getting burned, falling from high places, being hit by a car or truck, germs or getting a serious illness and not being able to breathe. They were then asked to indicate for each separate item what DSM-IV defined anxiety disorder(s) they expected to be present in a child who scored high on that particular item. The professionals were familiar with the classification of mental disorders and were allowed to consult the specific criteria of DSM-IV (childhood) anxiety disorders. Next. 178 children (86 boys and 92 girls; M = 10.3 years, SD = 1.2, r = 8813 years) of two regular primary schools in Maastricht, The Netherlands were recruited and asked to complete a short version of the FSSC-R and the SCARED. This was done in their classroom in the presence of a research assistant and their teacher. The short version of the FSSC-R lists the 10 top intense childhood fears (see above). Children indicated their level of fear of these items on a 3-point scale: “none”, “some”, or “a lot”. These were scored 1.2, and 3, respectively and then combined to yield a total fear score ranging from 10-30. The SCARED is a 66-item self-report questionnaire measuring anxiety disorders symptomatology (Birmaher et al., 1997). The SCARED consists of 9 DSM-IV linked subscales: panic disorder symptoms (13 items; e.g. “When frightened, my heart beats fast”), generalized anxiety disorder symptoms (9 items; e.g. “I worry about things working out for me”), social phobia symptoms (4 items; e.g. “I don’t like to be with people I don’t know”), separation anxiety disorder symptoms (I 2 items; e.g. “I don’t like being away from my family”), obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms (9 items; e.g. “I have thoughts that frighten me”). traumatic stress disorder symptoms (4 items; e.g. “I have frightening dreams about a very aversive experience I once had”), specific phobia-animal type symptoms (3 items: e.g. “I am afraid of an animal that is not really dangerous”). specific phobia-blood-injection-injury type symptoms (7 items; e.g. “I am afraid to go to the dentist”) and specific phobiaenvironmental-situational type symptoms (5 items; e.g. “I am scared to fly in an airplane”). Children have to rate how frequently they have each symptom using a 3-point scale: “almost never”. “sometimes”, or “often”. These are scored 0. 1, and 2, respectively. SCARED total score and subscale scores can be obtained by summing relevant items, Previous research (Birmaher et al.. 1997) has shown that the SCARED is a reliable questionnaire in terms of internal consistency and test& retest stability. Furthermore, that research obtained evidence for the validity of the SCARED. That is, the scale was found to differentiate between anxiety disordered children, children with depression, and children with disruptive disorders. Furthermore. children suffering from a specific anxiety disorder (e.g. generalized anxiety disorder, separation anxiety disorder. and panic disorder) exhibited the to-be-expected profile of SCARED scores. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Table 1 lists the anxiety disorders that professionals related to the separate FSSC-R items. As can be seen, the professionals were rather unanimous in their judgments. As anticipated, specific phobia and generalized anxiety disorder were the most frequently mentioned anxiety disorders in relation to these IO FSSC-R items. Before addressing the main question of the present investigation, some remarks about the general statistics of the FSSCR and the SCARED are in order (Table 2). First, all questionnaires had satisfactory internal consistency: Cronbach’s r were 0.80 for the short version of the FSSC-R, 0.92 for the total SCARED, and between 0.60 (social phobia; specific phobiaenvironmental-situational type) and 0.81 (traumatic stress disorder) for the separate SCARED subscales. Second, significant sex differences were found on FSSC-R [r(176) = 4.8, P < O.OOl]. SCARED total score [r(176) = 3.2, P < 0.005], SCARED panic disorder [r(l76) = 2.3, P < 0.05], SCARED separation anxiety disorder [f(176) = 2.8, P < O.Ol], SCARED specific phobia-animal type [/( 176) = 3.1, P < O.OOS]. SCARED specific phobia-blood-injection-injury type [t(176) = 4.2, I. Table 1.Judgements Death or dead people of the three professmnals of what anxiety disorder(s) they expected to be related to the separate FSSC-R Generalized anxiety disorder (2) Specific phobia-blood-injection-injury Getting lost in a strange Bombmg place attacks-bang Separation mvaded Generalized Spiders breakmg Fire--getting Into our house Generalized burned anxiety from high places Specific 8. Bemg hit by a car or truck disorder (3) type (3) anxiety disorder (3) stress disorder Germ5 or getting a serious phobia--environmental-situational Generalized illness anxiety disorder Obsessive-compulsive Generalized bemg able to breathe Speafic anxiety disorder The number of professionals relating the FSSC-R item to a particular anxiety disorder type (3) (3) type (3) (I) phobia-blood-injection-injury Panic disorder Now. disorder type (3) (3) Specific phobia-blood-injection-injury 10. Not type (3) (I) Specific phobia-blood-injection-inJury 9 type (3) (3) Specific phobta-blood-injectIon-injury Traumatic Falling disorder Specific phobia-animal A burglar 7 anxiety type (2) (2) IS shown Items between parentheses 577 Notes and Shorter Communications Table 2. Some general stat!stIcs (mean scores. Cronbach’s 5(. sex dtfferences. scales and relationship M (SD) 21.6 (4.2) 20.1 (4.0) SCARED Total score Panic disorder Generalized anxiety disorder Social phobia Separation anxiety disorder Obsessive-compulsive disorder Traumatic stress disorder Specific phobia--animal type Specific phobia-blood-injection-injury Specific phobia-situational-environmental 36.1 4.6 4.6 3.1 6.5 5.7 2.8 I.1 4.5 3.2 32.0 3.9 4.1 2.9 5.8 5.6 2.5 0.7 3.6 2.7 Note. ‘P < type type (I 5.5) (3 I) (2.9) (1.9) (3.3) (3.2) (2.2) (1.0) (2.5) (2.2) and the SCARED Girls z r with age 22.9 (3.8) 0.80 - 0.20; 39.9 (17.2) 5.2 (4.1) 5.0 (3.6) 3.3 (1.7) 7.2 (3.4) 5.8 (2.9) 3.1 (2.5) l.4(1.6) 5.3 (2.7) 3.6 (2.3) 0.92 0.78 0.77 0.60 0.64 0.61 0.81 0.71 0.62 0.60 -0.17; - 0.08 -0.06 -0.32* -0.19* -0.13 -0.15’ 0.13 -0.08 -0.14 Boys Fear Survey Schedule for Children-Revised (16.8) (3.7) (3.3) (1.8) (3.4) (3.0) (2.4) (1.4) (2.8) (2.3) wtth age) of the FSSC-R 0.05 3. Mean SCARED subscale scores (SD) of children who reported “none”, ” some”. or “a lot” of fear to the separate FSSC-R items and the results of the analyses of variance with sex and age as covariates. Only data of subscales that professionals linked to the FSSC-R items are shown Table Rating “none” “some” “a lot” F?,,,1 P Par-hoc comparisons 3.2 (2.7) 3.5 (2.8~ 5.4 (3.1) 5.0 (2.3) 6.3 (4. I) 5.9 (3.3) 13.8 6.5 <O.OOl < 0.005 I <2,3 I <2.3 2. Getting lost in a strange place Separation anxiety disorder 5.3 (2.9) 6.2 (3.1) 8.4 (3.9) 6.1 <0.005 I.213 3. Bombing attacks-being invaded Generdhzed anxiety disorder 3.2 (3.5) 4.7 (3.5) 4.9 (3.0) 2.2 NS 4. Spiders Specific phobta-animal 0.6 (0.8) 1.2 (1.4) 2.4 (1.8) 15.7 <O.OOl l<2<3 3.2 (2.4) 4.8 (3.5) 5.1 (3.1) 3.0 <0.05 I <2.3 3.4 (2.8) 1.9 (2.1) 3.9 (2.4) 2.7 (2.1) 5.9 (2.7) 3.6 (2.5) 10.7 5.5 <O.OOl < 0.005 1.2<3 1.2<3 I .4 (I .4) 2.9 (2.2) 3.9 (2.2) 13.1 <O.OOl l<2<3 2.8 (2.9) 2.9 (2.8) 3.9 (2.6) 3.9 (2.9) 5.4 (3.4) 5.1 (2.5) 6.8 5.8 <O.OOl <0.005 l.2<3 l,2<3 3.7 (2.8) 4.3 (2.3) 3.8 (3.7) 3.8 (2.6) 5.1 (3.0) 3.9 (3.0) 5.6 (2.5) 6.8 (2.9) 5.6 (3.2) I I.2 10.5 5.5 <O.OOl <O.OOl <0.005 l,2<3 1,213 l.2<3 2.0 (2.5) 2.7 (3.1) 3.7 (2.8) 3.6 (3.1) 5.1 (2.5) 5.2 (3.8) 8.4 4.1 <O.OOl co.05 l<2<3 1.2<3 FSSC-R I. item Death or dead people Generalized anxiety disorder Specific phobia-blood-injection-injury type type 5. A burglar breaking into our house Generalized anxiety disorder 6. Fire-getting burned Specific phobia-blood-mjectiott-Injury Traumatic stress disorder type 7. Falling from high places Specific phobia-environmental-situational 8. Being hit by a car or truck Generalized anxiety disorder Specific phobia-blood-Injection-injury 9. Germs or getting a serious illness Specific phobia-blood-injection-inJury Obsessive-compulsive disorder Generalized anxiety disorder IO. Not being able to breathe Specific phobia-blood-mjection-injury Panic disorder P < O.OOl] and type type type type SCARED environmental-situational type [/(I761 = 2.5. P < 0.051. In line with previous research (e.g. Bernstein and Borchardt, 1991). girls exhibited higher levels of fearfulness and anxiety disorders symptomatology than boys. Third, significant negative correlations emerged between age, on the one hand, and FSSC-R [r(l78) = -0.20, P < O.Ol]. SCARED total score [r( 178) = -0.17, P < 0.05], SCARED social phobia [r(178) = -0.32, P < O.OOl] and SCARED separation anxiety disorder [r(178) = -0.19, P < 0.051, on the other hand. Again, this is in line with previous studies that showed that fearfulness and anxiety disorders symptomatology appear to decline with age (Ollendick et al., 1989. 1994; Birmaher et al., 1997). To examine the connection between FSSC-R items and anxiety disorders symptomatology, analyses of variance with age and sex as covariates (ANCOVAs) were carried out. With these ANCOVAs, the SCARED subscales scores of children who reported “none”, “some” or “a lot” of fear on the separate FSSC-R items were compared. Table 3 shows the results of the ANCOVAs that were carried out on those SCARED subscales that professionals linked to the separate FSSC-R items. As can be seen, for all FSSC-R items (except for “bombing attacks-being invaded”), the predicted pattern of SCARED 578 Notes and Shorter Communications subscale scores emerged. For example, children who scored “a lot” on FSSC-R item “spiders” exhibited significantly higher scores on SCARED specific phobia-animal type subscale than children who scored “none”, whereas children who scored “some” fell in between. So far, the data suggest the existence of straightforward connections between FSSC-R items and DSM-IV linked anxiety disorders symptomatology as tapped by the SCARED. Thus, professionals associated most FSSC-R fears with specific phobia and generalized anxiety disorder and this, in turn, was borne out by the SCARED data. However, it is important to note that the ANCOVAs also yielded a considerable number of unexpected, less obvious results. For instance, children’s scores on the FSSC-R item “not being able to breathe” appeared to be related to SCARED obsessivecompulsive disorder. Thus. children who scored “a lot” on this item had significantly higher SCARED obsessivecompulsive disorder scores than children who scored “none”. while children who scored “some” fell in between. Even when applying a Bonferroni correction (setting the P-value of the ANCOVA on P < 0.05/75. i.e. the number of tests on non-expected SCARED subscales), a total number of 19 ANCOVAs on unexpected SCARED subscales remained significant. Thus, although the FSSC-R items were generally found to be connected with the to-be-expected anxiety disorders symptomatology, they were also associated with less obvious SCARED scales. Taken together, the pattern of anxiety disorders symptomatology associated with the separate FSSC-R items appears to be not very specific. A limitation of the present study is that it relied on a sample of non-clinical children. Note. however, that the current finding accords well with-the results of the clinical study of Last ct al. (1989). Given the asoecific relationshio between FSSC-R and SCARED, it is not surprising to find that the short version of FSSCR correlated only moderately with the SCARED. The correlation of FSSC-R with-SCARED was 0.58. P < 0.001 for the SCARED total score, and varied between 0.26, P < 0.001 (specific phobia-animal type) and 0.51, P < 0.001 (specific phobias-situational-environmental type) for the various subscales. Yet, unexpectedly. the FSSC-R total score was also associated with SCARED social phobia [r(178) = 0.44. P < O.OOl], although none of the IO items had any relevance to social phobia. Interestingly, a similar finding was reported by Goetsch e/al. (1987). In their study among undergraduate students, these authors found that the Fear Survey Schedule (FSS) subscale “fear of social interaction” best predicted self-reports of general anxiety. Goetsch et al. (1987) propose that this relationship is probably due to the fact that social contact is a more frequently encountered stimulus situation than other categories of fear stimuli. Alternatively. the association between general fearfulness and social anxiety may be carried by a third, underlying variable. For example. the social phobia items of the SCARED may tap a temperamental category such as behavioral inhibition (i.e. the tendency to react with withdrawal to unfamiliar situations or people), which is known to be a predictor of anxiety proneness (Biederman rr ul.. 1990). In sum, then, the current study found meaningful and significant connections between FSSC-R items and anxiety disorders symptomatology in normal children. In addition, a considerable number of less straightforward relationships between FSSCR and anxiety disorders symptomatology emerged. Thus, FSSC-R items do not point out unambiguously in the direction of one particular anxiety disorder. 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