Factor Structure of Korean Version of Fear Survey Schedule for Children / 신경정신의학

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to assess the psychometric properties and to investigate factor structure of the Korean version of Fear Survey Schedule for Children (FSSC-K). METHODS: 397 male and 366 female students in elementary, middle, and high school completed the FSSC-K, a anxiety scale, and a self-esteem scale to assess psychometric properties. 403 male and 175 female outpatients completed FSSC-K for confirmatory factor analysis. RESULTS: First, psychometric properties of the FSSC-K compared favorably with that of the FSSC-R. Second, students in elementary school were significantly higher in total score of the FSSC-K than in high school and females significantly higher than males. Third, a seven-factor solution provided the best conceptual fit for responding on the FSSC-K. Fourth, seven-factor model was most appropriate in result of confirmatory factor analysis in clinic-referred sample. CONCLUSION: It is suggested that the FSSC-K have a good reliability and validity and seven-factor model was most appropriate in Korean children and adolescents.

Temperamental Characteristics of Asthmatic Children in Korea / 신경정신의학

The objective of this study was to determine temperamental characteristics of children with bronchial asthma. An earlier preliminary study(Kim SP, Ferrara A, Chess S, 1980) results show that the asthmatic children, as a group, are significantly different from two other control groups (I. children with eczema, allergic rhinitis, or both without asthma: II. normal healthy children in their temperamental profile). The parents of 85 Korean children with bronchial asthma, ages 3 to 7 years, completed the Korean version of Parental Temperamental Questionnaire developed by Thomas and Chess. The data collected were of ordinal type, ranked from 1 to 7 and the non-parametric Mann-whitney U Test was utilized. Any child with a suspected history or diagnosis of premature birth, organic brain syndrome, mental retardation, childhood psychosis, congenital physical anomaly, hereditary disease or any other medical or surgical conditions, other than asthma, requiring continuous physicians care was excluded from the study population. The results showed that asthmatic female children were characterized by lower adaptability and lower threshold of responsiveness. And 22% of asthmatic children were of the difficult type, compared to 11% of normal children. Both groups were statistically different In terms of temperamental constellation. The findings strongly suggest the existence of a distinct temperamental profile of asthmatic children. Early detection of the profile may be of great value for parents and child health care providers in understanding the asthmatic children's correct developmental needs and in determining appropriate parenting approaches for the chronically ill children at the risk of behavioral disorders.