FACTOR-ANALYSIS AND REDUCTION OF A FEAR SURVEY SCHEDULE AMONG DENTAL PHOBIC PATIENTS

A fear survey instrument, based on the Fear Survey Schedule-II and fiv e additional fear items, was administered to 109 patients (70 women an d 39 men) on a waiting list at a specialized dental fear clinic. The f ear survey was analyzed to identify its factorial structure. Five fear factors, explaining 54% of the total variance, were identified concer ning areas of ''illness and death'', ''failures and embarrassment'', ' 'social situations'', ''physical injuries'', and ''animals and natural phenomena''. An ad hoc reduction of items was carried out to form a s horter, more practical to use questionnaire, which resulted in factors of four or five items with loadings greater than 0.50. The factors in tercorrelated significantly (r(p) varying between 0.33 and 0.59) and ' 'illness and death'' correlated highly with ''physical injuries'' (r(p )=0.59) and ''animals and natural phenomena'' (r(p)=0.56), while ''fai lures and embarrassment'' correlated highly to ''social situations'' ( r(p) 0.54). Statistically significant, but generally lower correlation s were found between each factor and the dental fear measures. The hig hest correlations were found between fear of ''physical injuries'' and dental fear. There was also a high and significant correlation betwee n sex and fear of ''animals and natural phenomena''.