Fear of Spiders Questionnaire

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Anxiety Disorders

Background:

• Specific phobias, like arachnophobia, significantly impact quality of life.
• Existing assessment tools may have limitations in sensitivity and specificity.
• The Spider Phobia Questionnaire (SPQ) is a common measure, but a complementary tool could enhance assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and validate the 18-item Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FSQ).
• To assess the FSQ's ability to differentiate between individuals with and without spider phobia.
• To evaluate the FSQ's sensitivity to change following cognitive therapy and its psychometric properties.

Main Methods:

• Development of the 18-item FSQ, a self-report measure.
• Administration of the FSQ to 338 undergraduates.
• Assessment of test-retest reliability, convergent validity (correlations with SPQ and behavioral avoidance test), and factor analysis.
• Evaluation of FSQ scores pre- and post-cognitive therapy.

Main Results:

• The FSQ successfully discriminated between phobic and non-phobic individuals.
• FSQ scores showed significant decrements following cognitive therapy, indicating treatment sensitivity.
• Test-retest reliability was stable over a one-month period in control groups.
• The FSQ demonstrated adequate convergent validity with the SPQ and a behavioral avoidance test.
• Factor analysis identified two factors explaining 55% of the variance.

Conclusions:

• The FSQ is a reliable and valid measure for assessing spider phobia.
• The FSQ appears more sensitive than the SPQ in detecting phobic responses and treatment-induced changes.
• The FSQ's explicit item phrasing may improve its utility in clinical and research settings for arachnophobia.