Biomedical subjects

Peter Muris

Publications and source records attributed to Peter Muris.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

PubMed2003

The Koala Fear Questionnaire: a standardized self-report scale for assessing fears and fearfulness in pre-school and primary school children.

The Koala Fear Questionnaire (KFQ) is a standardized self-report scale for assessing fears and fearfulness in children aged between 4 and 12 years. The current article presents six studies which examined the reliability and validity of the KFQ. Study 1 (N=108) demonstrated that the visual fear scales of Koala bears as employed in the KFQ are highly comparable to the standard 3-point scales that are used in other childhood fear measures. Study 2 (N=163) provided support for the convergent validity of the KFQ in a sample of 8- to 14-year-old children. That is, the scale correlated substantially with alternative measures of childhood fear and anxiety. Study 3 (N=189) showed that the KFQ possesses good internal consistency and test-retest stability in a group of 8- to 11-year-old children. The results of Studies 4 (N=129) and 5 (N=176) indicated that the KFQ is suitable for children aged 4 to 6 years and demonstrated that the psychometric properties of the scale in younger children are highly similar to those obtained in older children. Study 6 (N=926) showed that the factor structure of the KFQ was theoretically meaningful: although the data clearly pointed in the direction of one factor of general fearfulness, spurs of the commonly found five-factor solution of childhood fear were found in the KFQ. Altogether, the KFQ seems to be a valuable addition to the instrumentarium of clinicians and researchers who are working with fearful and anxious children.

Aging↗

PubMed2003

Threat perception abnormalities in children: the role of anxiety disorders symptoms, chronic anxiety, and state anxiety.

This study investigated the relative contribution of general (trait) anxiety and state anxiety to threat perception abnormalities in nonreferred children aged 8-13 years (N=299). Children were first asked to complete self-report measures of anxiety disorders symptoms and chronic anxiety. Next, they were individually interviewed using an ambiguous story paradigm from which a number of threat perception indexes were derived. Just before the interview started, children were asked to fill out a measure of state anxiety. Results showed that high levels of general anxiety (as indexed by anxiety disorders symptoms and chronic anxiety) were significantly related to increased threat perception and lower threat thresholds. High levels of state anxiety were also associated with increased threat perception and lower threat thresholds. Regression analyses indicated that general anxiety and state anxiety both accounted for a unique proportion of the variance in threat perception abnormalities, although the contribution of general anxiety was in most cases substantially larger than that of state anxiety. Finally, no support was found for the notion that threat perception abnormalities are the result of the conjoint influence of general anxiety and state anxiety.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Contingency-competence-control-related beliefs and symptoms of anxiety and depression in a young adolescent sample.

The present study examined the connection between contingency-competence-control-related beliefs, on the one hand, and anxiety and depression, on the other hand, in a large sample of young adolescents aged 10 to 14 years (N = 214). Participants completed measures of perceived contingency, competence, and control, as well as a questionnaire assessing symptoms of common anxiety disorders and major depressive disorder. Results showed that contingency-competence-control-related beliefs were intercorrelated and that these beliefs, in turn, were significantly associated with symptoms of anxiety and depression. Structural equation modeling provided support for a model in which perceived contingency and perceived competence predicted perceived control and in which perceived competence (anxiety and depression) and perceived control (depression only), in turn, predicted symptoms of psychopathology. A prospective test of this model indicated that none of the contingency-competence-control-related beliefs was able to predict symptoms of anxiety and depression at 4-weeks follow-up. However, data also demonstrated that perceived competence significantly contributed to the subjective experience of anxiety and depression on both occasions.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

The Children's Somatization Inventory: further evidence for its reliability and validity in a pediatric and a community sample of Dutch children and adolescents.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the psychometric properties of the Children's Somatization Inventory (CSI) in the Netherlands. METHOD: The CSI and a number of personality and psychopathology questionnaires were administered to Dutch schoolchildren (N = 479), children referred to a pediatric clinic (N = 63), and children's parents. RESULTS: Factor analysis yielded a number of factors that have also been found in previous research, viz., pain/weakness, gastrointestinal symptoms, and pseudoneurological symptoms. The reliability (internal consistency) of the CSI was satisfactory. Furthermore, support was obtained for the validity of the CSI. More specifically, the scale correlated in a theoretically meaningful way with child and parent reports of personality and psychopathology, and discriminated well between healthy and pediatric children. Finally, highly similar psychometric properties were obtained for the Parent version of the CSI (i.e., PCSI). CONCLUSION: The Dutch version of the CSI seems to be a reliable and valid self-report measure for assessing somatization symptoms in children and adolescents.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

The links between the Adolescent Dissociative Experiences Scale (A-DES), fantasy proneness, and anxiety symptoms.

The purpose of this study was to further examine the psychometric properties of the Adolescent Dissociative Experiences Scale (A-DES). A sample of normal adolescents (N = 331) aged 12 to 18 years completed the A-DES and questionnaires measuring posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, other anxiety disorder symptoms, and fantasy proneness. Factor analysis indicated that the A-DES, at least in nonreferred youths, is assessing a single dimension of dissociation. Furthermore, A-DES scores are not only significantly related to PTSD symptoms but also to other anxiety disorder symptoms (i.e., generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and panic disorder) and fantasy proneness. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are briefly discussed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Defense styles, personality traits, and psychopathological symptoms in nonclinical adolescents.

The purpose of the present study was to examine relationships between defense styles, personality traits, and psychopathological symptoms in nonclinical youths. A large sample of adolescents (n = 437) completed the Defense Style Questionnaire for Adolescents, the Junior version of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, and a scale measuring symptoms of DSM-defined disorders. Results showed that there were clear relationships between personality traits (neuroticism and psychoticism) and defense styles (neurotic and immature defense) on the one hand and psychopathological symptoms on the other hand. Most importantly, regression analyses indicated that personality traits and defense styles both accounted for unique proportions of the variance in psychopathological symptoms.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Anxiety, threat perception abnormalities, and emotional reasoning in nonclinical Dutch children.

Examined the relation between childhood anxiety and threat-perception abnormalities using vignettes in which external (i.e., exposure to potential threat cues) and internal (i.e., experience of anxiety responses) information were systematically varied. Nonclinical children (N = 156) aged 8 to 13 years completed anxiety questionnaires and were then exposed to 3 types of stories: ambiguous stories, ambiguous + anxiety-response stories, and nonthreatening stories. From children's responses to these stories, a number of threat-perception indexes were derived. Results showed that both external and internal information inflated children's perception of threat. Further, high levels of anxiety were accompanied by enhanced threat perception in response to external threat cues. Finally, little evidence was found that high levels of anxiety, and in particular of anxiety sensitivity, were associated with a greater tendency to use internal information (i.e., emotional reasoning). Potential avenues for future studies on anxiety-related threat-perception distortions are briefly discussed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

The validity of attention deficit hyperactivity and hyperkinetic disorder symptom domains in nonclinical Dutch children.

Examined the validity of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and hyperkinetic disorder (HKD) symptom domains in a sample of Dutch school children aged 10 to 14 years (N = 558). Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity were satisfactorily represented in various models. Psychopathological correlates of ADHD/HKD symptom domains were examined through their associations with the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and the Youth Self-Report (YSR). As expected, all three symptom domains were strongly associated with externalizing problems. Furthermore, inattention and hyperactivity were more strongly related to CBCL/YSR attention problems, whereas impulsivity was more strongly associated with symptoms of aggression and delinquency.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Thought-action fusion and schizotypy in undergraduate students.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship between thought-action fusion (TAF) and schizotypy. METHOD: In two separate samples of undergraduate students (Ns = 77 and 64), correlations were computed between a measure of TAF and indices of schizotypy and fantasy proneness. RESULTS: Positive correlations were found between TAF and various aspects of schizotypy (i.e. perceptual aberration, magical ideation, schizotypal personality characteristics, disposition to hallucinate). However, correlations between TAF and schizotypy no longer attained significance when controlling for fantasy proneness. CONCLUSION: At least in the non-clinical population, the connection between TAF and schizotypy seems to be a by-product of fantasy-prone individuals' tendency to report unusual experiences.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Reliability and validity of the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale and the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders in German children.

The reliability and validity of the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale (SCAS) and the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) were evaluated in a sample of 556 German primary school children. Both the SCAS (alpha = 0.92) and the SCARED (alpha = 0.91) were demonstrated to have high internal consistency. The validity of the SCAS and the SCARED was supported by a number of findings. First, in agreement with previous studies, girls displayed significantly higher levels of anxiety symptoms than boys. Furthermore, SCAS and SCARED scores were substantially interrelated. Finally, significant correlations were found between these two measures of anxiety symptoms and the Youth Self-Report and the Columbia Impairment Scale. The utility of the SCAS and the SCARED as screening instruments for anxiety symptoms in children is briefly discussed.

Anxiety Disorders↗

PubMed2002

An expanded childhood anxiety sensitivity index: its factor structure, reliability, and validity in a non-clinical adolescent sample.

Anxiety sensitivity refers to the fear of anxiety-related bodily sensations that are interpreted as having potentially harmful somatic, psychological, or social consequences. The current study examined the factor analytic structure of anxiety sensitivity in a large sample of normal adolescents (N=518) using the revised childhood anxiety sensitivity index (CASI-R). Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that anxiety sensitivity as measured by the CASI-R can best be conceptualised as a hierarchical construct with four lower-order factors loading on a single higher-order factor. The lower-order factors were 'fear of cardiovascular symptoms', 'fear of publicly observable anxiety reactions', 'fear of cognitive dyscontrol', and 'fear of respiratory symptoms'. An additional aim of the present study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the CASI-R. Results showed the CASI-R to be a reliable scale in terms of internal consistency. Furthermore, CASI-R scores were substantially related to levels of anxiety sensitivity as measured by the original index, trait anxiety, symptoms of anxiety disorders, in particular 'panic disorder and agoraphobia', and depression. Finally, some evidence was found for the validity of the CASI-R factor scores. That is, all factors convincingly loaded on symptoms of 'panic disorder and agoraphobia', whereas the factor 'fear of publicly observable anxiety reactions' was also strongly associated with symptoms of 'social phobia'.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

The connection between cognitive development and specific fears and worries in normal children and children with below-average intellectual abilities: a preliminary study.

The present study explored the relationship between cognitive development and anxiety phenomena in 4-12-year-old children. Fears and worries of normal children (n=176) were compared to those of children with below-average intellectual abilities (children with BAIA; n=105). We evaluated to what extent level of cognitive development as indexed by a Piagetian conservation task was associated with the presence of fears and worries. While normal children and children with BAIA did not differ with regard to the content of their fears and worries, normal children more frequently reported such anxiety phenomena during the semi-structured Anxiety Interview than did children with BAIA. Furthermore, in normal children, evidence was found to suggest that level of cognitive development contributes to the experience of fears and worries. That is, anxiety phenomena were more prevalent among those children who passed a Piagetian conservation task. However, when anxiety phenomena were assessed by means of the Koala Fear Questionnaire (KFQ), a different picture emerged. KFQ data suggested that fears were less frequent in normal children and those children with BAIA who had a higher level of cognitive functioning. Apparently, the Anxiety Interview and the KFQ tap quite different aspects of anxiety. The KFQ seems to measure primitive fears that are likely to be prevalent among children with limited cognitive capacity, whereas the Anxiety Interview assesses more sophisticated anxiety phenomena that probably depend on high levels of cognitive functioning.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2002

The etiology of specific fears and phobias in children: a critique of the non-associative account.

The non-associative account of phobic etiology assumes that a number of specific fears (e.g., fear of heights, water, spiders, strangers, and separation) have an evolutionary background and may occur in the absence of learning experiences (e.g., conditioning). By this view, these specific fears pertain to stimuli that once posed a challenge to the survival of our prehistoric ancestors. Accordingly, they would emerge spontaneously during the course of normal development and only in a minority of individuals, these specific fears would persist into adulthood. While the non-associative approach has generated interesting findings, several critical points can be raised. First, it capitalizes on negative findings, i.e., the failure to document learning experiences (e.g., conditioning, modeling) in the history of phobic children. Second, it largely ignores factors that have been found to be crucial for the acquisition of early childhood fears (e.g., the developmental level of the child, stimulus characteristics such as novelty, aversiveness, and unpredictability, and early experience with uncontrollable events). As an alternative to the non-associative account, we briefly describe a multifactorial model of childhood fears and phobias.

Child↗

PubMed2002

Three traditional and three new childhood anxiety questionnaires: their reliability and validity in a normal adolescent sample.

The current study examined the psychometrics of three traditional [i.e., the trait anxiety version of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC), the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS), and the Fear Survey Schedule for Children - Revised (FSSC-R)] and three new childhood anxiety scales [the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC), the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED), and the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale (SCAS)] in a large sample of normal adolescents (N=521). Childhood anxiety scales were generally found to be reliable in terms of internal consistency. Furthermore, evidence was obtained for the convergent and divergent validity of the various anxiety questionnaires. That is, anxiety questionnaire scores were found to be substantially intercorrelated. Particularly strong associations were found between total scores of the STAIC and the RCMAS, total scores of the SCARED and the SCAS, and between subscales that intend to measure specific categories of anxiety symptoms. Childhood anxiety questionnaires were substantially connected to an index of depression, although correlations among anxiety questionnaires were generally higher than those between anxiety scales and a measure of depression.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Fear of storms and hurricanes in Antillean and Belgian children.

The present study assessed fear of hurricanes in children who had been confronted with this natural event (i.e., Antillean children, n=161). Their fear levels were compared to those of children who are unfamiliar with such an event (i.e., Belgian children, n=185). Antillean children reported significantly higher levels of fear of storms than Belgian children did, thus providing support for the notion that exposure to dangerous events promotes children's fears of those events. Surprisingly, however, Antillean children had lower scores on the 'Hurricanes' item than Belgian children. Plausibly, differences in how children interpreted this item may have accounted for this unexpected finding. That is, ratings of Antillean children were probably based on actual experiences with hurricanes, whereas scores of Belgian children presumably reflected appraisal of threat in case they would be confronted with such an event. Implications of this finding for the assessment of childhood fears are briefly discussed.

Belgium↗

PubMed2002

Spider phobia interaction of disgust and perceived likelihood of involuntary physical contact.

After reading vignettes, a group of spider-phobic girls (n = 18) and a group of nonphobic girls (n = 18) rated the subjective probability of spiders entering their private living space, their tendency to approach and make physical contact, and the subjective probability of spiders doing physical harm. In addition, they indicated their eagerness to eat a favorite food item before as well as after it had been shortly contacted by spiders. In support of the idea that spider phobia results from the convergence of spiders' disgusting properties and the subjective probability of involuntary contact, phobic girls reported relatively high ratings concerning: (a) the probability of spiders entering their room; (b) spiders' tendency to approach and make physical contact; and (c) spiders' disgust-evoking status. Finally, regression analysis indicated that spiders' disgust-evoking status is the single best predictor of spider phobia, whereas the independent contribution of the perceived probability of spiders doing physical harm was found to be negligible. All in all, the present findings strongly support the idea that spider phobia essentially reflects a fear of physical contact with a disgusting stimulus.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

The assessment of contemporary fears in adolescents using a modified version of the Fear Survey Schedule for Children-Revised.

The FSSC-Hawaii (FSSC-HI; Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 12, 437-461) is a modified version of the Fear Survey Schedule for Children-Revised (FSSC-R; Behaviour Research and Therapy, 21, 685-692) that includes a number of contemporary fear stimuli and situations (e.g., "drugs", "being raped", "AIDS"). The psychometric properties of the FSSC-HI were examined in a large sample of Belgium adolescents (n = 551) aged 12-19 years. Results showed that a five- and seven-factor model both provided satisfactory fits for the structure of the FSSC-HI. Furthermore, the internal consistency of the scale was good and this appeared to be true for the five-factor as well as the seven-factor solution. Support was found for the convergent validity of the FSSC-HI. That is, FSSC-HI scores correlated in a meaningful way with scores on alternative measures of childhood anxiety. Finally, a considerable number of the "new" fear items were found to rank high in the top 10 of most common fears. The implications for the assessment of fears in children and adolescents are briefly discussed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Aggression and threat perception abnormalities in children with learning and behavior problems.

The current study investigated the connection between aggression and the perception of threat in a group of children with learning and behavior problems (N = 103). Aggression was assessed by means of the aggressive behavior subscales of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), Teacher Report Form (TRF), and Youth Self-Report (YSR). Perception of threat was measured by studying children's reactions to a series of stories depicting ambiguous social situations. Results demonstrated small but significant correlations between self-reported aggression (as indexed by the YSR) and threat perception abnormalities. That is, high levels of aggression were associated with a high frequency of threat perception, high ratings of threat, high levels of negative feelings and cognitions, and an early detection of threat. Furthermore, no substantial connections emerged between children's level of aggression as rated by parents (CBCL) and teachers (TRF) and threat perception indices. Finally, regression analyses revealed that in particular YSR social problems was a better predictor of most threat perception abnormalities than YSR aggressive behavior. Implications of these findings are briefly discussed.

Adolescent↗