Children's fears: Cultural and developmental perspectives

doi:10.1016/S0005-7967(97)00012-0

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Volume 35, Issue 6, June 1997, Pages 491-496

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7967(97)00012-0 Get rights and content

Abstract

A modified version of the Revised Fear Survey Schedule for Children was administered to 865 Israeli Jewish and Israeli Bedouin children, 8–12 yr-old. Consistent with former studies, there was an age-related decline in fears and females reported more fears than males. Comparison of Jewish and Bedouin children's reports of fears showed significant quantitative and qualitative differences between the two groups. Results underscore the salience of both developmental and cultural factors in the development and nature of children's fears.

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Citation Excerpt :
Colored children showed a less consistent pattern: the frequency of their fears was sometimes comparable to that found in either white or black youths, or sometimes in between. Previous research has shown that there are marked differences as to the content of fear and anxiety symptoms of children and adolescents across countries (e.g., Ingman et al., 1999; Ollendick et al., 1996) and even within countries in case there are clear-cut cultural and socioeconomic dissimilarities (Burkhardt et al., 2003; Elbedour et al., 1997). It is most likely that these differences originate from differential exposure to fear-provoking stimuli and situations due to variations in natural environment and living conditions.
The present study examined the origins of common childhood fears within a South African context. Six-hundred-and-fifty-five 10- to 14-year-old children were given a brief fear list that helped them to identify their most intense fear and then completed a brief questionnaire for assessing the origins of fears that was based on Rachman's [Rachman, S. (1977). The conditioning theory of fear acquisition: A critical examination. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 15, 375–387; Rachman, S. (1991). Neoconditioning and the classical theory of fear acquisition. Clinical Psychology Review, 17, 47–67] three-pathways theory. More precisely, children were asked to report whether they had experienced conditioning, modeling, and negative information experiences in relation to their most feared stimulus or situation, and also had to indicate to what extent such experiences had actually played a role in the onset and/or intensification of their fears. Results showed that children most frequently reported indirect learning experiences (i.e., modeling and negative information) in relation to their fears, whereas conditioning was clearly less often mentioned. The majority of the children had no precise idea of how their fear had actually begun, but a substantial proportion of them reported various learning experiences in relation to the onset and intensification of fears. Significant cultural differences were not only observed in the prevalence of common fears, but also in the pathways reported for the origins of fears. The results are briefly discussed in terms of the living conditions of South African children from various cultural backgrounds.
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Children's fears: Cultural and developmental perspectives

Abstract

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Adolescent intimacy: A cross-cultural study

Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology

Fears and phobias in children: Some clinical and developmental considerations

Child Psychiatry and Human Development

Intrusiveness and closeness-caregiving: Rethinking the concept of family “enmeshment”

Family Process

The Bedouin family in Rahat: Perspectives on social change