Scale Overview & Construct
13-item self-report measure assessing fear of war through two dimensions: experiential fear (emotional/cognitive reactions, items 1-7) and physiological fear (somatic reactions, items 8-13). 5-point Likert scale. Higher scores indicate greater fear of war. Originally developed in Hungarian.
Purpose & Measurement Objectives
Instrument Specifications
Academic Citation & Instrument Provenance
When referencing this instrument in research, academic theses, or clinical institutional audits, please cite the original author publication:
Governance, Boundaries & Ethical Use
Imported from the OpenScales open item-bank project. This specific digital implementation has not been independently clinically validated by PsiQ — scores are for self-reflection, research, and educational purposes only, and are not a diagnosis.
License: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Citation: Kalcza-Janosi, K., Kotta, I., Marschalko, E. E., & Szabo, K. (2023). The Fear of War Scale (FOWARS): Development and initial validation. Social Sciences, 12(5), 283. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12050283 This is not a diagnostic tool. If you are in crisis or having thoughts of self-harm, please contact a licensed mental health professional or a crisis helpline in your country immediately. Low/Moderate/High bands below reflect this test's own possible score range only (simple thirds) — they are NOT a clinical threshold or population norm. No such cutoff has been published for this instrument.