Fear survey schedule -III: Evaluation of the psychometric properties in a Portuguese sample

This study aimed at evaluating the psychometric properties of the Fear Survey Schedule-III in a Portuguese sample. A total 1,980 subjects, selected by convenience sampling from a normative adult population, participated in this study. The participants are aged between 18 and 80 years (M = 39.5, SD = 8.5) and 59% of them are female. The psychometric properties of the scale were evaluated regarding psychometric sensitivity, construct validity, and reliability. The external construct validity was evaluated with multigroup analysis in a random sample, independent from the initial validation sample. The originally proposed factor model presented an unacceptable adjustment to the validation sample. Thus, it was proceeded the refinement of the model with a part of the sample which was randomly selected. In conclusion, the simplified model presented as a good factorial goodness of fit, and was invariant in a second sample, independent from the first. A new hierarchical structure was proposed with a 2^nd order factor called "Fears" which showed good psychometric properties (sensitivity, construct validity and reliability).

Fears; factorial validity; reliability; normative adult population