Phobic anxiety in 11 nations. Part I: Dimensional constancy of the five-factor model.

The Fear Survey Schedule-III (FSS-III) was administered to a total of 5491 students in Australia, East Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Spain, Sweden, and Venezuela, and submitted to the multiple group method of confirmatory analysis (MGM) in order to determine the cross-national dimensional constancy of the five-factor model of self-assessed fears originally established in Dutch, British, and Canadian samples. The model comprises fears of bodily injury-illness-death, agoraphobic fears, social fears, fears of sexual and aggressive scenes, and harmless animals fears. Close correspondence between the factors was demonstrated across national samples. In each country, the corresponding scales were internally consistent, were intercorrelated at magnitudes comparable to those yielded in the original samples, and yielded (in 93% of the total number of 55 comparisons) sex differences in line with the usual finding (higher scores for females). In each country, the relatively largest sex differences were obtained on harmless animals fears. The organization of self-assessed fears is sufficiently similar across nations to warrant the use of the same weight matrix (scoring key) for the FSS-III in the different countries and to make cross-national comparisons feasible. This opens the way to further studies that attempt to predict (on an a priori basis) cross-national variations in fear levels with dimensions of national cultures.

The short-EMBU in East-Germany and Sweden: a cross-national factorial validity extension.

The factorial stability and reliability of the 23-item s(hort)-EMBU previously demonstrated to be satisfactory in samples of students from Greece, Guatemala, Hungary and Italy, were extended with 791 students from East-Germany and Sweden. Previous findings on factorial validity, internal reliability and correlations among scales were replicated. The 23-item form thus continues to be recommended as a reliable functional equivalent to the early 81-item EMBU, when the clinical and/or research context does not adequately permit application of time-consuming test batteries.

[A comparison of East German and West German probands: emotionality and objective personality variables]. / Ostdeutsche und Westdeutsche im Vergleich: Emotionalität und Objektive Persönlichkeitsvariablen.

Data from a joint research project between the University of Trier and the Humboldt University Berlin of personality dimensions were compared and analyzed. Since Germany was separated for forty years, studies of the general population are necessary in order to yield possible cultural differences. In the present comparison we analyzed personality constructs like anxiety, curiosity, anger and anger expression as well as variables of objective personality tests. The sample from the former western German states contained N = 109 persons. As a basis for comparison, we selected a parallized matched sample (n = 109) from the new eastern German states out of a larger sample (N = 586). The main results were as follows: (1) reliability (consistency) and factor structure of the measures are similar for both samples. This equivalency is the formal prerequisite for a comparison. (2) There are substantial differential effects between eastern and western samples. Wellness as well as emotionality also show different results considerable with regard to age and sex.

[Validation of the Child Speech Test using the Heidelberg Speech Development Test with six-year-old preschool children]. / Untersuchungen zur Validierung des Kindersprachtests (KISTE) mit Hilfe des Heidelberger Sprachentwicklungstests (HSET) an sechsjährigen Vorschulkindern.

We present and discuss results from researches to validate a new test for diagnosing speech-competences of preschool children KISTE. 41 children (6;0-6;11) were tested both with KISTE and HSET. Correlations, factor- and clusteranalysis showed that the structure of both tests is different and that KISTE has a good differential validity for both aspects of speech: communicative and structural.