Pergamon 0005-7967(95)0t~9-0 Behav. Res. Ther. Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 277-282, 1996 Copyright © 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved 0005-7967/96 $15.00 + 0.00 SPIDER PHOBIA QUESTIONNAIRE FOR CHILDREN (SPQ-C): A PSYCHOMETRIC STUDY AND NORMATIVE DATA MEREL KINDT t*, JOS F. BROSSCHOT I and PETER MURIS 2 ~Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Roetersstraat 15, 1018 WB Amsterdam, The Netherlands and 2Department of Experimental Abnormal Psychology, Limburg University, The Netherlands (Received 26 September 1995; in revised form 13 October 1995) Summary--The purpose of this study was to develop a reliable and valid questionnaire to assess spider fear in children. The Spider Phobia Questionnaire for adults was adapted for children by simplifying items and by assessing situations relevant to children. The SPQ for children (SPQ-C) was administered to two non-clinical samples of children aged 8-12. The first sample consisted of 586 Ss who filled in the SPQ-C twice, with a retest interval of 6-7 weeks. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability were high. The second sample consisted of 669 children of which 28 spider phobic and 30 nonphobic girls were selected for the Behavioural Approach Test (BAT). The SPQ-C predicted BAT scores, thus supporting the validity of the questionnaire as a measure of spider fear. Norms for the SPQ-C, based on the total sample of children, are provided. INTRODUCTION In recent years there is a growing interest in research on prevalence of fears in children. There is ample evidence that childhood fears are relatively common. The average child typically exhibits several fears throughout development and such fears are more prevalent in girls than in boys (Ollendick, 1985). Several questionnaires have been developed to study the prevalence of fears in children, such as the revised version of the Fear Survey Schedule for children (FSSC-R: Ollendick, 1983). In research on adult fears, attention has not only been devoted to descriptive features of fears but also to underlying mechanisms, such as cognitive processes associated with specific fears (for a review see Logan & Goetsch, 1993). Such studies may shed light on the role that cognitive factors may play in the maintenance of fears. Studying cognitive mechanisms associated with childhood fears is of interest because it might help to unravel vulnerability factors in the onset of fears, and might also clarify how these develop during the course of life. Little research has so far been directed at the development of instruments that can reliably assess the degree of fear of children who suffer from one specific fear or phobia (e.g. spider phobia or snake phobia). There are several reasons for studying spider fears and phobia in children. First, spider phobia can be used as a model for other kinds of pathological anxiety. Samples of such phobics may be appropriate groups for this purpose since they can be considered to be a quite homogeneous group showing clearly defined, yet pervasive, anxiety complaints (de Jong, 1993). Second, animal phobia, including spider phobia, develops very early in children (Ost, 1987) and can already be found at the age of 7. Spider phobia is not only one of the most prominent fears in adults (Marks, 1987) but also in children (Ollendick, 1983). Specific fears like spider phobia can be a serious concern in children because their severity or duration may undermine normal development (Kendall, Chansky, Friedman, Kim, Kortlander, Sessa & Siqueland, 1991). However, spider phobia has primarily been studied in adults. Many laboratory studies on spider phobia have been reported, especially in female adults in whom this fear is more prevalent than in males. The findings of most of these studies can be compared easily with each other because.standard questionnaires are used. Although spider phobia in young children might be a promising model for studying developmental *Author for correspondence. 277