Evaluation of the influence of child-parent relationship on dental fear in children: A cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND

Dental fear and anxiety can complicate treatment delivery in children, while the contribution of broader child-parent relationship characteristics remains uncertain.

AIMS: The study aimed to evaluate the association between child-parent relationship domains and dental fear among children aged 6-12 years.

SETTINGS AND

DESIGN

A cross-sectional observational study was conducted at a tertiary dental care center.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

Children attending the Department of Pediatric and Preventive Dentistry were recruited consecutively. Dental fear was assessed using the 17-item Modified Children's Fear Survey Schedule-Dental Subscale, and child-parent relationship quality was evaluated using the 30-item Child-Parent Relationship Scale. Closeness, conflict, and dependency were analyzed as domain scores. Of 300 available records, 299 met the eligibility criteria for the primary analysis.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Descriptive statistics, Cronbach's alpha, Spearman's rank correlation, Mann-Whitney U -test, and multiple linear regression were applied. Statistical significance was set at P < 0.05.

RESULTS

The mean dental fear score was 33.61 ± 7.30. Tooth extraction, syringe-related procedures, and drilling produced the highest fear scores. Closeness ( rs = -0.036, P = 0.534), conflict ( rs =0.065, P = 0.260), and dependency ( rs = -0.004, P = 0.940) were not significantly associated with dental fear. Age and sex were also not associated with dental fear, and adjusted analysis yielded comparable findings.

CONCLUSIONS

Dental fear was more closely related to procedure-specific concerns than to the child-parent relationship domains assessed in this study. Particular attention should be directed toward fear associated with needles, drilling, and anticipated extraction.