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Psychometric Assessment of the Child Surgery Worries Questionnaire Among Portuguese Children

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Abstract

Worries are common in surgical patients, especially in children. The present study analyzed the factor structure and the psychometric properties of a Portuguese version of the Child Surgery Worries Questionnaire (CSWQ-P) in a Portuguese sample of 490 children. Exploratory factor analysis, conducted via principal axis factoring with oblimin rotation, provided evidence for a four-factor structure of the 21 item questionnaire. A confirmatory factor analysis was also conducted, showing the good fit of this solution. The CSWQ-P proved to have one more subscale than the original Spanish version CSWQ. Correlations with the children’s trait anxiety provided evidence of convergent validity for the CSWQ-P. Females also scored higher on worries than males on all subscales. Psychometric properties of this revised version of the CSWQ provided support for use with young children, and indicate the CSWQ-P has value for use in healthcare practice and in clinical research.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology for providing the financial support for these studies through Ph.D. scholarship grant for the first author (SFRH/BD/61041/2009). The authors acknowledge the availability of teachers and the school committees from Bairro Restelo School, Caselas School, Moinhos do Restelo School, National Conservatory of Dance School, Paula Vincente School and Voz do Operário School. We sincerely thank all children for their participation in this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), CIS-IUL, Av. das Forças Armadas, 1649-026, Lisbon, Portugal

    Sara Fernandes, Patrícia Arriaga & Helena Carvalho

  2. Mid Sweden University, Sundsvall, Sweden

    Francisco Esteves

  3. CIS-IUL, Lisbon, Portugal

    Francisco Esteves

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  1. Sara Fernandes
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  2. Patrícia Arriaga
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Correspondence to Sara Fernandes.

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Sara Costa Fernandes, Patricia Arriaga, Helena Carvalho and Francisco Esteves declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Fernandes, S., Arriaga, P., Carvalho, H. et al. Psychometric Assessment of the Child Surgery Worries Questionnaire Among Portuguese Children. J Clin Psychol Med Settings 24, 289–301 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-017-9503-1

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