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The results have shown 6% of the Dutch child population to be highly fearful, while another 8% may be at risk to develop high dental fear. By providing extra attention for these children, the development of high dental fear or phobia may be prevented.

The Dental Subscale of the Children's Fear Survey Schedule (CFSS-DS) is a well-known instrument for assessing dental fear in children. Previous studies have shown that the scale has acceptable reliability and validity. Factor analysis using scores of a group of Finnish schoolchildren resulted in three factors. No other data on the factor structure have been published. In order to report on the factor structure of the Dutch parental version of the CFSS-DS, the present study was undertaken. Factor analysis using scores from a group of Dutch children (n= 150) demonstrated a factor pattern fairly similar to the results found in the Finnish study. Three factors were found: 1) fear of highly invasive dental procedures, 2) fear of less invasive aspects of treatment and 3) fear of medical aspects. Considering that almost all items load substantially (> or =0.20) on more than one factor, it seems that one primary underlying dimension exists: fear of invasive treatment aspects. The CFSS-DS is proposed as a reliable, one-dimensional measure of dental fear.

This study implements the first steps to be taken in the construction of a taxonomy of situations from a trait psychological perspective. Taking the AB5C model of personality characteristics (De Raad et al., 1992) as a point of departure, a collection of situations that is linked to the personality domain was obtained, and subsequently subjected to PCA and HICLAS, yielding three taxonomies of situations. The results suggest that the domain of situations can be described by a handful of situation dimensions. Traits differ in the type and the number of situations in which they can be expressed, and situations differ in the type and number of traits that can be expressed in them. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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