Internal consistency and validity of the School Fear Survey Schedule (SFSS)

The objective of this research was the internal consistency and the validity of the School Fear Survey Schedule (SFSS), developed by Méndez (1988). This instrument was designed from a review of the scientific literature about school phobia, from other children inventories, from a previous pilot study, and from professional practice in clinical settings. The initial version was a fifty- item list for school fears, rated on a five-point scale, from zero: "no fear" to four: "extreme fear", so its scoring range was from zero to two hundred. 5,354 children filled in the School Fear Survey Schedule, and their parents and their form masters carried out the assessment of the severity of the children s fears by means of rating scales. Results showed a high internal consistency and a suitable convergent validity of the School Fear Survey Schedule.