Don't Think That Kids Aren't Noticing: Indirect Pathways to Children's Fear of COVID-19.

Ana Radanović,Ksenija Krstić,Svetlana Pavlović,Isidora Micić

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.635952

Abstract

The present study is couched within Rachman's three-pathway theory of fear acquisition (Rachman, 1977, 1991). Besides the direct contact with the objects of fear, this model also includes two indirect pathways to fear acquisition: negative information transmission and modeling. The study aims to explore the contribution of these three factors to the level of children's fear of COVID-19. The sample consisted of 376 children (59.6% girls), aged 7–19 (Mage = 12.77, SDage = 3.57), and one of their parents (Mage = 42.88, SDage = 6.00). The survey was conducted online during the COVID-19 national state of emergency in the Republic of Serbia. The children assessed their fear of COVID-19, general fearfulness, negative information transmission, and modeling by their parents, as well as the level of exposure to negative information outside their home. The parents assessed their own fear of COVID-19 and trait anxiety. Parents' anxiety, children's age, and children's general fearfulness were used as covariates. The results of our path analysis provide support for Rachman's notion of indirect pathways. The more the parents were afraid of COVID-19, the more they expressed this (either verbally or through their behavior), which in turn led to an increase in the children's fear of COVID-19. Furthermore, children's exposure to negative information related to COVID-19, provided by their teachers and peers or stemming from the media, directly contributed to the level of children's fear. The results of the study emphasize the importance of caregivers' behavior during global health crises and provide some clues as to what caregivers may do to protect their children's mental health in such circumstances.

Highlights

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised many important questions related to children’s coping mechanisms in stressful situations, as well as to their general psychological functioning during global health crises
Since the children could have had direct experience with COVID-19 in case of illness of their parents or siblings as well, we asked them if someone in their family had been infected with COVID-19
Children’s general fearfulness has significant, small, effects on both Children’s (β = 0.193, p < 0.001) and Parents’ fear of COVID-19 (β = 0.223, p < 0.001), as well as on all the pathways of fear acquisition (Non-family information transmission, β = 0.190, p < 0.001; Family information transmission, β = 0.113, p < 0.026, and Modeling, β = 0.150, p < 0.001). These findings suggest that children who are generally more fearful are more afraid of COVID-19, and have parents who are more afraid of COVID-19

Summary

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised many important questions related to children’s coping mechanisms in stressful situations, as well as to their general psychological functioning during global health crises. Various studies conducted during the ongoing pandemic showed negative effects of the pandemic on children’s mental health (Brown et al, 2020; Jiao et al, 2020; Orgilés et al, 2020; Pisano et al, 2020; Smirni et al, 2020). People’s fears related to COVID-19 seem to be normative during the pandemic and have the adaptive function of inducing people to take care of themselves and others. Normative fears of adults and children might develop into clinical fears that disrupt mental health during the crisis, and afterwards

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Conclusion