General self-efficacy, dental anxiety and multiple fears among 20-year-olds in Norway

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.