The development of normal fear: A century of research

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Abstract

This paper reviews over a century's research into the developmental patterns of normal fear. Normal fear has been defined as a normal reaction to a real or imagined threat and is considered to be an integral and adaptive aspect of development with the primary function of promoting survival. Across a wide range of methodologies and assessment instruments researchers have been particularly focussed on investigating whether fear content, prevalence and intensity differ depending upon age, gender, socio-economic status, and culture. The structure and continuity of normal fears have also received much attention. The most consistently documented findings include that fear decreases in prevalence and intensity with age and that specific fears are transitory in nature. There are also predictable changes in the content of normal fear over the course of development. Such changes are characterized by a transition from infant fears which are related to immediate, concrete and prepotent stimuli, and which are largely non-cognitive, to fears of late childhood and adolescence which are related to anticipatory, abstract, and more global stimuli and events. Recent research into normal fear has more closely examined the validity of the more frequently used current assessment technique (i.e., the fear survey schedule). This research has provided some encouraging results as well as directions for future investigation.

Section snippets

Retrospective accounts

More than a century ago, Hall (1897) administered a questionnaire to over 1,000 adults requiring that they provide detailed descriptions of their fears. In this very early study, Hall's findings, which included reports for fears occurring between the ages of less than 4 to 26 years, revealed an age-related decrease of fears relating to meteors, clouds, blood, end of the world, being kidnapped, fairies, loss of orientation, and shyness of strangers. An increase of fear with age was reported for

Observational investigations

The investigations which have been carried out using an observational methodology are few in number (e.g., Jersild & Holmes 1935a, Jones & Jones 1928, Scarr & Salapatek 1970, Valentine 1930). In one of the first observational investigations, Jones and Jones (1928) examined the specific fear of a 6-foot long snake (i.e., a Spilotes Corais) in a sample of children aged 14 months to 10 years and in a sample of adults. Although for children below 2 years of age, no fear of the snake was expressed,

Parent/teacher reports

A somewhat more frequently used method of assessing children's fears has been obtaining third-party reports from parents (e.g., Jersild & Holmes 1935b, Lapouse & Monk 1959) and/or teachers (e.g., Cummings 1944, Cummings 1946). Hagman (1932) was among the first to implement this methodology. The mothers of 70 children aged between 2 and 6 years participated in the study. An average of 2.7 fears per child was reported, with the most common being fears of dogs, doctors, storms, deep water,

Child interviews

Several researchers have gathered data by interviewing children (e.g., Derevensky 1974, Maurer 1965, Sidana 1967, Slee & Cross 1989, Winker 1949) or their parents (e.g., Hall 1897, Hagman 1932, Jersild & Holmes 1935a). One of the earliest interview-based examinations of children's normative fear was conducted by Jersild, Markey, and Jersild (1933). The 398 subjects who were involved in the study were aged between 5 and 12 years and were individually interviewed. During these interviews,

Fear list investigations

Yet another methodology which has been implemented in the assessment of children's fears is the fear list technique for which children are simply asked to list their fears (e.g., Angelino et al. 1956, Angelino and Shedd 1953, Nalven 1970, Pratt 1945). Not surprisingly, this somewhat cognitively demanding technique has generally been implemented with older samples typically above 8 years of age.

Pratt's (1945) study is unusual among those using this methodology because the sample included

Self-report fear survey schedule investigations

The administration of fear survey schedules to groups of children has been the most commonly used method of assessing fear in youth. In fact, in recent years the fear survey schedule has become, with few exceptions, the exclusive assessment tool for fear assessment, so much so that developmental fear research has largely shifted its focus from examining fear itself to evaluating the validity of the fear survey schedule.

In addition to Scherer and Nakamura's (1968) Fear Survey Schedule for

General findings

As reviewed above, the research into normative fear in children and adolescents has varied with regard to methodology and has included retrospective, parent/teacher reports, self-reports (interviews, fear lists, fear survey schedules). Below, the research reported above according to methodology has been classified according to outcome (i.e., age, gender, and socio-economic status differences, fear structure and duration, and cross-cultural/national findings).

Conclusions and future directions

In over one century of fear research, substantial progress has been made. The literature strongly documents a consistent and predictable pattern of fear development between birth through to adulthood. Furthermore, the research has indicated that the developmental trends, for the most part, are consistent across cultures. However, despite much progress there remain unanswered questions. One major issue relates to assessment. As already noted, normal fear is, in present times, overwhelmingly

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