Inhibition of fear acquisition in toddlers following positive modelling by their mothers

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Abstract

The present study used an experimental design to investigate the role of modelling as a protective factor in fear and avoidance learning in a sample of 77 toddlers. Mothers and their 12–20-month-old children were randomly assigned to one of three pre-exposure conditions: (1) a modelling group (n=27) observed their mothers responding positively to a fear-relevant stimulus; (2) a stimulus-only group (n=25) were exposed to a fear-relevant stimulus alone; and (3) a control group (n=25) were exposed to neither modelling nor the stimulus alone. Children in all three groups were then subjected to an observational conditioning trial in which the experimenter reacted with fear and disgust toward the stimulus. When subsequently tested for the acquisition of fear, children in the modelling group showed more positive affective reactions and more approach behaviours than either controls or children exposed to the stimulus alone. The results demonstrate that very young children can rapidly form lasting associations between maternal affective reactions and novel, fear-relevant stimuli. Further, positive maternal reactions to a stimulus can over-ride any fear-evoking effect of negative reactions to that stimulus by a stranger.

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Participants

Analyses were based on a sample of 77 toddler–mother pairs. The participants were volunteers recruited through day-care centres and newspaper advertisements in the Sydney metropolitan area. All toddlers were healthy, full-term, and from English-speaking or bi-lingual families. Most of the children (97%) were from two-parent families residing in predominantly middle-class areas of Sydney. There were 40 boys and 37 girls and ages ranged from 12 to 21 months (M=15.9 months, SD=2.6 months). More

Participant characteristics

Participant characteristics for each of the three experimental groups are reported in Table 1. One-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs) and chi-square tests indicated that the groups did not differ significantly in mean age F(2, 74)=.28, p=.76, sex distribution χ2(2, n=77)=.94, p=.63, birth order χ2 (4, n=77)=3.16, p=.53, or ethnic background χ2(8, n=77)=13.23, p=.10. Nor was there a significant difference between groups in number of siblings F(2, 74)=.96, p=.39, mean maternal age F(2, 74)=.02, p

Discussion

The results of the current study provide support for the hypothesis that maternal modelling of positive affect can interfere with subsequent observational learning of fear in young children. This result is similar to that found by Mineka and Cook (1986) who showed that monkeys exposed to a model behaving non-fearfully with snake stimuli were immunised against the effects of subsequent fear conditioning. The fact that the modelling group showed a significant increase in positive affect relative

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