The fear survey schedule for children — ii (fssc-ii): Validity data as a treatment outcome measure

Abstract

This article extends previous research on the development and evaluation of a fear survey schedule for children. It was predicted that children diagnosed with an anxiety or other internalising disorder would report fewer fears, a lower intensity of fear and different fear content following treatment, whereas the same changes would not be observed in a control group. A total of 34 children, aged 5 to 15 years, who presented with school-refusal behaviour, were randomly allocated to cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) or waiting-list control (WLC). Self-reported fear was assessed at pre- and post-test for both groups using the Fear Survey Schedule for Children - II (FSSC-II). Importantly, it was shown that the self-reported fear of the two groups was not distinguishable at pre-test. Also, whereas no significant differences were found between pre-and post-test on a total of 12 fear indices for the WLC group, the CBT group was found to report a significantly lower fear score at post-test on 10 of these 12 indices. In contrast to past research using the FSSC-II with samples of children without clinical problems, the pre-test top 10 fears of both groups and the post-test top 10 fears of the WLC group were found to include stimuli related to themes other than death and danger. It was concluded that these findings provide support for the sensitivity of the FSSC-II and justify its use as an outcome measure in treatment evaluations.