Interval rating scales for children's dental anxiety and uncooperative behavior.

Abstract

This report describes two rating scales, an Anxiety Scale and an Uncoopera rive Behavior Scale, developed to assess children’s responses to dental stress. The rating procedure is reliable, valid, and easily integrated into clinical or research activities. In the present study, the Method of Paired Comparisons was used to further validate the scales, and to establish interval scaling properties. The rating scales poten tiatly provide a much needed standard tool for behavioral assessment in pedodontic research.