Dental fear and locus of control:a pilot study

Short CommunicationPer Otto NeverlienDental Practice. Vikersjnd. Norway

Neverlien PO: Dental fear and locus of control: a pilot study. Community DentOral Epidemiol 1988; 16: 127.

Abstract - In a pilot study among 25 Norwegian elementary schoolchildren age 13the external part of a Health Locus of Control (HLC) inventory, when scored ininternal direction, showed remarkably high positive correlations with clinical anxiety(r = 0.81) and scores on Corah's Dental Anxiety Scale (CDAS) (r = 0.77). The highcorrelation between the E-part of the HLC scale and CDAS was upheld when HLCwas given to 19 children 20 months later. All other correlations in the pilot studywere moderate to absent.

Key words: behavioral dental science; locus ofcontrol

Per Otto Neveriien, PO Box 75., N-3371Vikersund, Norway

Accepted for publication 7 November 1987

The relatiotiship between the I-E scale ofROTTER (1) and anxiety is problematic(2). Commonly externals are found to bemore anxious than internals (2, 3), buta recent study showed no relationshipbetween health locus of control and den-tal anxiety (4). Other reports indicatethat different pretreatment informationto externals and internals may be helpfulin their adjustment to dental (5) andmedical (6) treatment.

A Norwegian translation of a HealthLocus of Control (HLC) scale (7) wasgiven to 25 elementary schoolchildren(age 13) in rural Norway as a pilot test.Item five was omitted from final analysisbecause several children did not compre-hend the meaning, resulting in questionmarks. This was not the case with theremaining 10 items, out of which fivewere worded in external and five in inter-nal direction. Prior to the HLC the chil-dren answered Corah's Dental AnxietyScale (CDAS) (8). During the next 10days their clinical behavior was rated (9)by a trained dentist. Twenty months laterthe HLC was mailed to the 25 children.Nineteen returned a filled in question-naire.

The results confirm earlier conclusionsthat internal and external orientation donot constitute a continuum, and as a fullscale does not indicate level of dental

anxiety (4). They also support a notionthat internality may not be meaningfulto children (10). The E-part ofthe scalewhen scored in internal direction corre-lates highly with CDAS (r = 0.77;P<0.01) and clinical rating (r=0.81;P<0.0\). Correlation between CDASand clinical rating is negligible (r = 0.18).Correlation between HLC at the first test

and 20 months later is moderate for fullscale (r=0.48; J'<0.05). The only othercorrelation to reach a level of significanceover the 20-month period is between E-part of HLC, internally scored, andCDAS (r=0.85; P<0.01). Locus of con-trol, being central in anxiety research(11), might still be of interest in dentalanxiety research.

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Psyehol Monogr 1966; 80: 1-28.2. JOE VC. Review of the internal-external control construct as a personality variable. Psyehol

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EtiKMAN MAJ, Psychologic correlates of dental anxiety. Community Dent Orat Epidemiol1986: y .̂ 69-72,

5. ALIERBACH SM, KENDALL PC. CLTTLER HF, LEVITT NR. Anxiety, locus of control, type ofpreparatory information, and adjustment to dental surgery. J Consult Clin Psyehol 1976;44: 809-18.

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8. CORAH NL. Development of a Dental Anxiety Scale, J Dent Res 1969; 48: 596. (only).9. KOENIGSBERG SR. JoHNSON R. Child behavior during three denta! visits. / Dent Child 1975;

42: 197-200.10. GoCHMAN DS, Some steps towards a psychological matrix for health behavior. Can J Behav

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generalized outcome expectancies on health. J Pers 1987; 55: 1-42.