Fears in preschoolers: translation, reliability and validity of the Fear Survey Schedule for Infant-Preschoolers (FSSIP) - Brazilian version.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to translate the Fear Survey Schedule for Infants-Preschoolers (FSSIP) for Brazilian Portuguese and to examine its reliability and validity for assessing fears among Brazilian preschoolers. METHODS Two-independent bilingual professionals conducted translation and back-translation of the original survey. The translated version was used to assess 152 preschool children divided in two groups: Clinical - 71 children referred for treatment for nighttime fear, and Control - 81 children enrolled in kindergarten who were not referred for any mental health service in the previous 6 months. All parents filled out the FSSIP, the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL/1.5-5), and a sociodemographic questionnaire. RESULTS Cronbach's alpha for the entire sample was 0.949 (95% CI: 0.94-0.96); for the Clinical Group 0.948 (95% CI: 0.93-0.96), and for the Control Group 0.95 (95% CI: 0.93-0.96). The mean score of fears was higher in the clinical group (60.19 vs 51.53, t = -2.056; p = 0.042), indicating acceptable discriminative validity. We also found positive, moderate and statistically significant correlations between FSSIP and most CBCL scores, indicating good convergent validity. CONCLUSIONS The Brazilian Portuguese version of the FSSIP showed good psychometric properties, and hence may be used in research and clinical settings to evaluate fears in preschoolers.