Academic literature on the topic 'Fear-Avoidance components Scale (FACS)'

Background The Fear-Avoidance Components Scale (FACS) is a reliable and valid instrument widely used to assess fear-avoidance beliefs related to pain and disability. However, there is a scarcity of validated translations of the FACS in different cultural and linguistic contexts, including the French population. This study aimed to translate and validate the French version of the FACS (FACS-Fr/CF), examining its psychometric properties among French-speaking individuals. Methods A cross-cultural translation process–including forward translation, backward translation, expert committee review, and pre-testing–was conducted to develop the FACS-Fr/CF. The translated version was administered to a sample of French-speaking adults (n = 55) with chronic musculoskeletal pain. Internal consistency (including confirmatory analyses of the 2 factors identified in the Serbian version), test-retest reliability and convergent validity were then assessed. Results The FACS-Fr/CF demonstrated high global internal consistency (α = 0.94, 95% CI: 0.91–0.96) as well as high internal consistency of the 2 factors identified in the Serbian version (α = 0.90, 95% CI: 0.86–0.94 and α = 0.90, 95% CI: 0.85–0.94, respectively). Test-retest analysis revealed a moderate (close to high) reliability (ICC = 0.89; 95% CI: 0.82–0.94 and r = 0.89; p<0.005). Convergent validity was supported by significant correlations between the FACS-Fr/CF scores and the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (r = 0.82; p < 0.005), the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (r = 0.72; p < 0.005) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (r = 0.66; p < 0.005). Conclusion The present study provides evidence for the cross-cultural translation and psychometric validation of the FACS-Fr/CF. The FACS-Fr/CF exhibits a high internal consistency, a moderate (close to high) test-retest reliability, and good construct validity, suggesting its utility in assessing fear-avoidance beliefs in the French-speaking population. This validated tool can enhance the assessment and understanding of fear-avoidance behaviors and facilitate cross-cultural research in pain-related studies.

Abstract Objective Physical activity and exercise are central components in rehabilitation after a myocardial infarction. Kinesiophobia (fear of movement) is a well-known barrier for a good rehabilitation outcome in these patients; however, there is a lack of studies focusing on the patient perspective. The aim of this study was to explore patients’ perceptions of kinesiophobia in relation to physical activity and exercise 2 to 3 months after an acute myocardial infarction. Methods This qualitative study design used individual semi-structured interviews. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 21 patients post-myocardial infarction who were screened for kinesiophobia (≥32 on the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia Heart). The interviews were transcribed and analyzed according to an inductive content analysis. Results An overarching theme was defined as “coping with fear of movement after a myocardial infarction—a dynamic process over time” comprising 2 subthemes and explaining how coping with kinesiophobia runs in parallel processes integrating the patient’s internal process and a contextual external process. The 2 processes are described in a total of 8 categories. The internal process was an iterative process governed by a combination of factors: ambivalence, hypervigilance, insecurity about progression, and avoidance behavior. The external process contains the categories of relatives’ anxiety, prerequisites for feeling safe, information, and the exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation program. Conclusion Coping with fear of movement after a myocardial infarction is a dynamic process that requires internal and external support. To further improve cardiac rehabilitation programs, person-centered strategies that support the process of each person—as well as new treatment strategies to reduce kinesiophobia—need to be elaborated. Impact Patients with a myocardial infarction were found to be ambivalent about how they expressed their fear of movement; therefore, it is crucial for physical therapists to acknowledge signs of fear by listening carefully to the patient’s full story in addition to using adequate self-reports and tests of physical fitness. These results will inform the design, development, and evaluation of new treatment strategies, with the overall aim of reducing kinesiophobia and increasing physical activity and participation in exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation.

Shoulder pain is one of the most common musculoskeletal conditions, and for people over 40 years old, it represents the musculoskeletal pain with the greatest impact on quality of life. Psychological factors, such as fear-avoidance beliefs, are associated with musculoskeletal pain, and several studies suggest that they can influence various treatment outcomes. Our objective was to explore the cross-sectional association between fear-avoidance beliefs and shoulder pain intensity and disability in subjects with chronic shoulder pain. A cross-sectional study was conducted, and 208 participants with chronic unilateral subacromial shoulder pain were recruited. The shoulder pain and disability index assessed pain intensity and disability. The Spanish fear-avoidance components scale assessed the presence of fear-avoidance beliefs. The association between fear-avoidance beliefs and pain intensity and disability was analyzed by means of multiple linear regression models and proportional odds models, reporting odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Shoulder and pain disability scores were significantly associated with fear-avoidance beliefs (p < 0.0001, adjusted R-square 0.93, multiple linear regression). There was no evidence of an association between sex and age in this study. The regression coefficient for shoulder pain intensity and disability score was 0.67446. The proportional odds model showed an odds ratio of 1.39 (1.29–1.50) for shoulder pain intensity and disability total score. This study suggests that greater levels of fear-avoidance beliefs are associated with greater levels of shoulder pain and disability in adults with chronic shoulder pain.

BACKGROUND: Alexithymia is a disturbance in awareness and cognitive processing of affect that is associated with over-reporting of physical symptoms, including pain. The relationship between alexithymia and other psychological constructs that are often associated with pain has yet to be evaluated.OBJECTIVES: The present study examined the importance of alexithymia in the pain experience in relation to other integral psychological components of Turk’s diathesis-stress model of chronic pain and disability, including fear of pain, anxiety sensitivity, pain avoidance and pain catastrophizing.METHODS: Heat pain stimuli, using a magnitude estimation procedure, and five questionnaires (Anxiety Sensitivity Index, Fear of Pain Questionnaire III, Pain Catastrophizing Scale, avoidance subscale of the Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale-20 and Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20) were administered to 67 undergraduate students (44 women) with a mean (± SD) age of 20.39±3.77 years.RESULTS: Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that sex, fear of pain and alexithymia were the only significant predictors of average heat pain intensity (F[6, 60]=5.43; R2=0.35; P=0.008), accounting for 6.8%, 20.0% and 9.6% of unique variance, respectively. Moreover, the difficulty identifying feelings and difficulty describing feelings subscales, but not the externally oriented thinking subscale of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 significantly predicted average heat pain intensity.CONCLUSIONS: Individuals with higher levels of alexithymia or increased fear of pain reported higher average pain intensity ratings. The relationship between alexithymia and pain intensity was unrelated to other psychological constructs usually associated with pain. These findings suggest that difficulties with emotion regulation, either through reduced emotional awareness via alexithymia or heightened emotional awareness via fear of pain, may negatively impact the pain experience.

The article presents the results of studying the connection between Internet addiction and social anxiety and the preferred types of Internet content among adolescents and young people studying in schools and universities. The sample consisted of 72 high school students of a secondary comprehensive school in Moscow aged 15 to 17 years (M=16), including 36 boys and 36 girls, as well as 72 junior students of Moscow universities aged 18 to 20 years old (M=19), of which 36 were boys and 36 were girls. The methodological complex included an Internet Addiction Test (K. Young), the original author's questionnaire of preferred Internet content, Social Avoidance and Distress Scale (SADS, Watson, Friend, 1969), Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (BFNE, Leary, 1983). It was revealed that the indicators of Internet addiction at the tendency level are higher in adolescents compared to students. Of the three components of social anxiety (social avoidance, social distress and fear of negative social assessment), only the indicator of fear of negative social assessment has a significant positive effect on the growth of indicators of Internet addiction in the combined group of respondents. The preference for content related to communication and self-presentation also has a significant impact on the growth of Internet addiction rates. Being overly concerned with other people's evaluations, seeking their approval, and focusing on self-presentation and social media communication all contribute to Internet addiction (increased time spent on the Internet, loss of control over it, as well as cognitive preoccupation with what is happening on the Internet).

Knowledge of a foreign language helps people from different cultures exchange experiences, expertise, and ideas worldwide. It is considered a valuable asset in the professional field and may be highly useful in personal life. Foreign language classroom anxiety is a phenomenon associated with fear and nervousness that occurs in a language learning context. Foreign language classroom anxiety often leads to a decrease in overall process efficiency, motivation loss, and avoidance of language practice. The aim of this study is to investigate, whether Big Five personality traits contribute to foreign language classroom anxiety. Four hundred and fifty-two foreign language learners aged between 16 and 70 participated in the study. Participants were given а Big Five personality inventory to assess their personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to new experience), and a foreign language classroom anxiety scale which measures the following components: test anxiety, fear of negative evaluation, and communication apprehension. Linear regression was used as an analysis method. The results revealed that neuroticism positively predicted fear of negative evaluation, communication apprehension, and test anxiety. Extraversion negatively predicted fear of negative evaluation, communication apprehension, and test anxiety. Openness to experience also negatively predicted all three foreign language anxiety components. The results of the study suggest that knowledge of learners’ Big Five personality traits may decrease the levels of foreign language anxiety in a classroom.

Introduction : Les connaissances sur le rôle de la kinésiophobie dans la chronicisation de la douleur sont limitées. Ce travail a donc cherché à y associer des aspects neurophysiologiques pour tenter de comprendre comment elle est impliquée dans cette chronicisation. De plus, un outil de mesure alternatif de la kinésiophobie a été traduit et validé en français. Méthodes : Cinq études ont été menées. Les trois premières ont cherché à évaluer les relations entre la kinésiophobie et les adaptations induites par la douleur à l'épaule sur le système de modulation descendante de la douleur chez 20 sujets (par une modulation conditionnée de la douleur), l'excitabilité corticospinale (par des courbes de recrutement en stimulation magnétique transcrânienne), ainsi que sur la cinématique, l'activité musculaire et les synergies musculaires de l'épaule, chez 30 sujets, lors d'une tâche de pointage. La quatrième étude a évalué la faisabilité d'induire de la kinésiophobie avec un faux diagnostic échographique chez 20 sujets (incluant 10 contrôles) tout en en mesurant l'effet sur l'excitabilité corticospinale. La cinquième a traduit et validé à l'échelle des composantes de la peur et de l'évitement chez 55 patients douloureux chroniques. Résultats : Pour les trois premières études, la douleur a réduit l'activité musculaire de l'épaule et, couplée à une kinésiophobie élevée, a conduit à une réduction de la distance parcourue par le doigt jusqu'à la cible. Des corrélations ont été trouvées entre le score de kinésiophobie et la variation des pentes des courbes de recrutement et entre la variation de S₅₀ et le produit scalaire des synergies. Des corrélations négatives ont été trouvées entre la modulation conditionnée de la douleur et la variation des pentes des courbes de recrutement et entre la variation du S₅₀ et les scores de kinésiophobie. La quatrième étude a révélé qu'un faux diagnostic n'avait d'impact ni sur la kinésiophobie ni sur l'excitabilité corticospinale vraisemblablement dû à l'absence d'antécédents de douleur chez les sujets. La cinquième étude a fourni une échelle avec de meilleurs résultats psychométriques que la plus utilisée actuellement. Conclusion : Ces interactions entre le système moteur, la kinésiophobie et la douleur apportent des indices sur les potentiels éléments impliqués dans la chronicisation de la douleur
Introduction : Knowledge about the role of kinesophobia in the chronicization of pain is limited. This work therefore sought to associate neurophysiological aspects to try to understand how it is involved in this chronicization. In addition, an alternative measurement tool for kinesiophobia was translated and validated in French. Methods : Five studies were conducted. The first three sought to evaluate the relationships between kinesiophobia and adaptations induced by shoulder pain on the descending pain modulation system in 20 subjects (via conditioned pain modulation), corticospinal excitability (via recruitment curves in transcranial magnetic simulation), as well as on the kinematics, muscle activity and muscle synergies of the shoulder (in 30 subjects) during a pointing task. The fourth study evaluated the feasibility of inducing kinesiophobia with a false ultrasound diagnosis in 20 subjects (including 10 controls) while measuring the effect on corticospinal excitability. The fifth translated and validated the scale of the components of fear and avoidance in a study of 55 chronic pain patients. Results : for the first three studies, pain reduced shoulder muscle activity and, coupled with high kinesiophobia, led to a reduction in the distance traveled by the finger to the target. Correlations were found between the kinesiophobia score and the variation in the slopes of the recruitment curves ans between the variation in S₅₀ and the dot product of the synergies. Negative correlations were found between conditioned pain modulation and variation in recruitment curve slopes and between variation in S₅₀ and kinesiophobia scores. The fourth study revealed that a false diagnosis had no impact on kinesiophobia or corticospinal excitability due to the absence of a history of pain in the subjects. The fifth study provided better psychometric results than some usual questionnaires. Conclusion : These interactions between the motor system, kinesiophobia ans pain provide clues about the potential elements involved in the chronicization of pain