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Fears In Children With Chronic Constipation: Reliability And Validity Of The Defecation Anxiety Scale, Elizabeth Page Clawson

Theses and Dissertations

Pediatric constipation can lead to various negative emotional and physical consequences including abdominal pain, painful defecation, toileting fears, anxiety about pain and intestinal dysfunction. In addition, constipation can lead to socially compromising and embarrassing situations due to associated overflow incontinence. These unpleasant physical and emotional symptoms may in tum lead to conditioned avoidance behaviors, which serve to further maintain the cycle of stool retention and constipation. Presently, there have not been any studies directly addressing the role of conditioned aversion in the etiology and maintenance of constipation. This study examined the psychometric properties of the Defecation Anxiety Scale (DAS)- a …