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General self‐efficacy, dental anxiety and multiple fears among 20‐year‐olds in Norway
Author(s) -
Skaret Erik,
Kvale Gerd,
Raadal Magne
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9450
pISSN - 0036-5564
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9450.00352
Subject(s) - psychology , anxiety , clinical psychology , human factors and ergonomics , self efficacy , poison control , developmental psychology , social psychology , psychiatry , medical emergency , medicine
This paper examines the extent to which low general self‐efficacy and painful dental and medical experiences are related to dental anxiety, multiple fears and to avoidance of dental care. A total of 754 20‐year‐olds completed a series of questionnaires, including the General Self‐efficacy Scale (GSE), Geer Fear Scale (GFS) and Dental Fear Survey (DFS). Females had lower self‐efficacy, higher dental anxiety and higher scores on the GFS than males. Multivariate analyses (linear stepwise regression) indicated that painful dental experiences, a high score on the GFS and negative opinions about own dental health explained 37% of the variance in DFS scores. Self‐efficacy had no predictive power for dental anxiety, and only dental anxiety had predictive power for dental avoidance behavior. Thirty‐eight percent of the total variance in GFS scores was explained by the following variables: being a female, high dental anxiety (DFS), low general self‐efficacy (GSE) and low educational level of the mother.