Spider Phobia Questionnaire for Children (SPQ-C)

Abstract

The Spider Phobia Questionnaire for Children (SPQ-C) is a highly specialized, self-report psychometric instrument designed to accurately measure the severity of fear and avoidance behaviors associated with spiders in pediatric populations. Developed by Kindt, Brosschot, and Muris, the SPQ-C addresses the critical need for a developmentally appropriate scale, moving beyond measures adapted solely from adult versions.

This 29-item scale employs a dichotomous (True/Not True) response format to assess the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral manifestations of Spider Phobia (arachnophobia) in youth. Its primary clinical utility lies in its ability to rapidly screen and distinguish between normative childhood dislike and a clinically significant specific phobia that requires therapeutic intervention. The scale has demonstrated strong internal consistency and satisfactory temporal stability, supporting its broad use in clinical assessment and academic research settings.

Keywords

Arachnophobia, Spider Phobia Questionnaire for Children, SPQ-C, child anxiety, specific phobia, self-report measure, psychological assessment, avoidance behavior, pediatric psychology, clinical screening.

Authors

Merel Kindt, Jos F. Brosschot, Peter Muris.

Purpose

The central purpose of the SPQ-C is to offer a standardized and reliable method for quantifying spider phobia symptoms specifically in children. Prior to its introduction, many assessment tools lacked the necessary psychometric rigor and contextual relevance required for younger populations, leading to potential misdiagnosis or inaccurate severity measurement.

The instrument enables clinicians to perform accurate differential diagnosis, establishing whether a child’s fear meets the criteria for a clinically significant phobia. Furthermore, the SPQ-C is a vital research tool for tracking treatment efficacy, particularly for exposure-based therapies, and for investigating the etiology and prevalence of specific phobias within childhood development. Its efficiency makes it ideal for large-scale epidemiological studies.

Construct

The SPQ-C targets the psychological construct of Specific Phobia, Animal Type (Arachnophobia), as defined by major diagnostic manuals, focusing on its presentation in children. This construct is understood to be multidimensional, encompassing the full spectrum of the phobic response.

The 29 items are designed to capture three core dimensions of fear severity: 1) Cognitive Appraisals (e.g., beliefs about the danger or ugliness of spiders); 2) Affective and Physiological Responses (e.g., tension, nausea, shivering upon exposure); and 3) Overt Avoidance Behaviors (e.g., actively avoiding specific locations or changing routes). By integrating these facets, the scale effectively differentiates between minor aversion and debilitating phobic reactions that interfere with daily functioning.

Validity

The initial psychometric study conducted by Kindt, Brosschot, and Muris (1996) established strong foundational validity for the SPQ-C. High content validity was ensured through the careful alignment of the 29 items with observed childhood fear manifestations and established diagnostic criteria (DSM) for specific phobia related to spiders.

Subsequent validation studies have provided evidence for both criterion and convergent validity. SPQ-C scores reliably correlate with objective behavioral measures, such as performance on behavioral approach tasks (BATs), which quantify actual avoidance behavior. Additionally, scores show positive correlation with other established measures of child anxiety and fear specific to spiders, such as the Spider Anxiety and Disgust Screening for Children (SADS-C), confirming that the instrument captures unique variance related to arachnophobia.

Reliability

The reliability of the Spider Phobia Questionnaire for Children is considered satisfactory for use in clinical and research settings. Internal consistency, which measures how well the items cohere to assess the same latent construct, is strong, documented by a high Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient of .89. This figure confirms that the scale’s items reliably measure a single, unified construct of spider fear severity.

Temporal stability, assessed via test-retest reliability, was found to be acceptable, showing a correlation coefficient (r) of .61. This level of stability suggests that the SPQ-C provides consistent measurements of phobic tendencies over time, making it suitable for longitudinal research designs and for evaluating changes in severity before and after therapeutic intervention.

Factor Analysis

While the SPQ-C is primarily used as a unidimensional scale yielding a total score of fear severity, typical factor analytic procedures applied to phobia measures often suggest underlying sub-factors. The structure of the 29 items implies that they contribute to the overall score through distinct, yet related, dimensions.

Potential sub-factors that could be extracted include: 1) Behavioral Avoidance (measuring actions taken to escape or prevent contact); 2) Emotional and Somatic Distress (capturing internal feelings like tension, sickness, or shivering); and 3) Attitudes and Cognitive Bias (including reverse-scored items related to neutral or positive views of spiders). Further empirical factor analysis across diverse international samples would be necessary to definitively confirm the instrument’s precise dimensional structure.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report questionnaire / Screening tool for Specific Phobia (Arachnophobia)

Format: 29 items answered using a dichotomous response format (True, Not true)

Language Available: Primarily validated in Dutch and English. Translations into other major research languages are available due to its widespread academic use.

Population Group: Children and adolescents presenting with anxiety disorders or specific phobias related to animals.

Age Group: Typically utilized for school-aged children, generally spanning 8 to 12 years old, depending on the respondent’s reading level and cognitive maturity.

Population Details: The scale was originally validated using both clinical and non-clinical samples of school-aged children residing in the Netherlands.

Test Methodology: Respondents indicate whether each statement accurately reflects their thoughts, feelings, or behaviors concerning spiders. Responses are scored dichotomously (e.g., 0 or 1), and these scores are summed to generate a total severity score. Higher cumulative scores indicate a greater degree of phobic severity.

Keywords

Self-report, child assessment, specific fear, psychometric study, Cronbach’s Alpha, test-retest reliability, clinical practice, behavior therapy, anxiety screening, developmental psychology.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Information not provided in source.

Affiliation Email addresses: Information not provided in source.

Correspondence Address: Information not provided in source.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The SPQ-C was formally introduced in 1996, published in the journal Behaviour Research and Therapy by the original developers: Kindt, Brosschot, and Muris. It is also cataloged in major clinical resource materials, such as the sourcebook edited by Fischer and Corcoran (2007).

While the scale is widely utilized, researchers and clinicians seeking to use the SPQ-C for non-commercial academic purposes should typically request permission directly from the authors or the journal publisher. Users must consult the original 1996 publication for specific licensing requirements and any associated usage fees.

Reference’s

• Fischer, Joel., Corcoran, Kevin J. (2007). Measures for Clinical Practice and research: A sourcebook. (4th ed.). NY. Oxford University Pr. Vol. 1, Page (s): 609-610.
• Kindt, Merel., Brosschot, Jos F., Muris, Peter. (1996). Spider Phobia Questionnaire for children (SPQ-C): A psychometric study and normative data. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 34(3), 277-282.
• Kindt, Merel., Brosschot, Jos F. (1999). Cognitive Bias in Spider-Phobic Children: Comparison of a Pictorial and a Linguistic Spider Stroop. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 21(3), 207-220.
• Klein, A. M., Becker, E. S., & Rinck, M. (2009). Direct and indirect measures of spider fear predict unique variance in children’s fear-related behavior. Manuscript submitted for publication.
• Klein, A. M., Rinck, M., and Becker, E. S. (2009). The Spider Anxiety and Disgust Screening for Children (SADS-C): Reliability and validity of a short measure of spider anxiety in children. Manuscript submitted for publication.
• Kindt, Merel., Brosschot, Jos F., Muris, Peter. (1996). Spider Phobia Questionnaire for children (SPQ-C). In Fischer, Joel., Corcoran, Kevin J. (2007). Measures for Clinical Practice and research: A sourcebook. (4th ed.). NY. Oxford University Pr. Vol. 1, Page (s): 609-610.

Items of the Spider Phobia Questionnaire for Children (SPQ-C)

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

1. I avoid being in gardens or parks because spiders might be there.
2. Even a toy spider in my hand scares me a bit.
3. Whenever I see a spider on television I close my eyes.
4. I dislike looking at pictures of spiders.
5. When there is a spider above my bed, I’m only able to sleep if somebody takes the spider away.
6. I enjoy looking at spiders weaving webs.
7. Even the thought of touching a spider scares me.
8. Whenever somebody tells me that there are spiders near me, I start looking around and get nervous.
9. If I think there are spiders in the closet, I keep the door of the closet closed.
10. If I’m about to put my shoes on, I would feel very uneasy If a spider would creep out of one of them.
11. If I see a spider, I feel tense.
12. I enjoy reading a story about spiders.
13. It makes me feel sick when I see a spider.
14. Spiders can be useful because they eat flies.
15. Thinking of spiders makes me shiver.
16. Some spiders are quite funny to watch.
17. I think other children are always a bit scared of grabbing a spider.
18. The way spiders walk is an ugly sight.
19. I dare to touch a spider with a long stick.
20. If I happened to find a spider while playing, I would probably run away.
21. Spiders scare me more than any other animal.
22. I would rather stay away from counties where there are a lot of poisonous spiders.
23. I’m careful picking fruit because there might be spiders in between the fruit.
24. I stay calm if there are spiders around.
25. When the teacher speaks of spiders I would rather leave the classroom.
26. Spider webs are very beautiful.
27. I stop reading a story if it is about spiders.
28. If I think that I will run into a spider on my way to school, I’ll take another route, even if this makes me come too late to school.
29. I’m scared of spiders, and of centipedes and of caterpillars.