FEARS OF YOUTH WITH MENTAL-RETARDATION - PSYCHOMETRIC EVALUATION OF THE FEAR SURVEY SCHEDULE FOR CHILDREN-II (FSSC-II)

The nature and development of normal fear; although widely researched within the general population, has been seriously neglected for indivi duals with mental retardation The present study involves the psychomet ric evaluation of the Fear Survey Schedule for Children-II with two sa mples: 187 children and adolescents with mental retardation and 372 in tellectually average students. The schedule was demonstrated to have s ound psychometric properties for both samples including good internal consistency and high retest reliability. Sound validity indices were d etermined by examining the relationships of fear scores with state, tr ait, and manifest anxiety scores. Comparison of the two samples yielde d significant differences. In particular students with mental retardat ion were found to score significantly higher than the comparison sampl e. In contrast to the age-related decrease in fear found for students of average intelligence, those with mental retardation did not demonst rate a decrease in self-reported fear with age. Gender differences wer e consistent across both samples with females reporting higher levels of fearfulness and a greater number of fears than males.