Objectives: Child dental fear causes a significant management problem. The Children's Fear Survey Schedule-Dental Subscale (CFSS-DS) is the most widely used measure of dental fear in children. This study was undertaken to develop and test reliability and validity for the Arabic version of the CFSS-DS.
Study design: the English CFSS-DS was translated to Arabic language and its reliability and validity were evaluated by distributing it to 6-12 year old Arabic pediatric dental patients (n=220). Of whom 144 children were assigned for test- retest reliability. To test criterion validity; 44 children were subjected to behavior rating during treatment and compared with their CFSS-DS. Fear of returning to the dentist was evaluated for all the children to test construct validity.
Results: the Arabic version of the CFSS-DS showed good internal consistency (alpha = 0.86) and test-retest reliability (0.86, P<0.001). Treatment with or without local anesthesia did not affect the children's behavior or fear scores. Significant correlations were found between total fear scores and both Frankl rating scale (r=-0.54, p<0.001) and willingness to return to the dentist (r=0.50, p<0.001).
Conclusion: the Arabic version of the CFSS-DS appears to be a reliable and valid method for evaluating child's dental fear in Arabic cultures.
Keywords: Arabic version; CFSS-DS; Fear; Fear Survey behavior; anxiety; children; reliability; validity.