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Keywords:

Social Sciences, Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Psychology, Clinical, Psychiatry, Psychology, Fear of suffocation, Fear of restriction, Claustrophobia fear, Exposure, Hyperventilation, ANXIETY SENSITIVITY, SUFFOCATION FEAR, RESPONSES, HYPERVENTILATION, INDEXES, SCALE, Adolescent, Anxiety, Chi-Square Distribution, Factor Analysis, Statistical, Female, Humans, Male, Netherlands, Phobic Disorders, Predictive Value of Tests, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Psychometrics, Reproducibility of Results, Surveys and Questionnaires, Young Adult, 1103 Clinical Sciences, 1701 Psychology, Clinical Psychology, 5203 Clinical and health psychology

Abstract:

Fear of suffocation and fear of restriction are thought to underlie claustrophobia and can be assessed with the Claustrophobia Questionnaire (CLQ; Radomsky et al., 2001). A first study tested the psychometric properties of a Dutch version of the CLQ. Students (N=363) completed a Dutch translation of the CLQ and a set of other questionnaires assessing other specific fears, anxiety or depression. Results confirmed the two-factor structure and showed that the Dutch version of the CLQ has good psychometric properties. A second study tested the predictive validity of the Dutch CLQ. Participants (N=23) were exposed each to nine claustrophobic situations with elements of suffocation, restriction or both. The Dutch CLQ was found to be a significant predictor of fear and respiratory reactivity during claustrophobic exposure. It can be concluded that the Dutch version of the CLQ is a reliable and valid instrument to assess claustrophobic fear.