Number Of Fears Research Articles

Social phobia in youth: The diagnostic utility of feared social situations.

The present study evaluated the utility of parent- and child-reported social fears for reaching a diagnosis of social phobia in youth. The diagnostic utility of (a) the number of fears and (b) specific feared social situations was examined. The sample included 140 youth and their parents: youth diagnosed with social phobia (n=50), youth diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder or separation anxiety disorder but not social phobia (n=49), and youth without an anxiety disorder (n=41). Youth and their parents were interviewed separately using the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for Children and Parents. Analyses indicate that a cut score of 4 parent-endorsed social fears optimally distinguished youth with and without social phobia. Analyses of child-reported fears did not identify a meaningful cut score. Conditional probability and odds ratio analyses indicated that several specific social fears have high diagnostic efficiency, and others were found to have limited diagnostic efficiency. Results are discussed with regard to informing diagnostic interviews and diagnostic systems for social phobia in youth.

Factors that influence the use of rehabilitation services in an urban Ugandan hospital.

The aim of the present study was to determine factors that motivate or deter injured individuals from using outpatient rehabilitation services at an urban Ugandan hospital. A qualitative study design was employed to obtain information about injured individuals' experiences with rehabilitation therapy services after they were discharged from a hospital setting. Key informant interviews were conducted with 13 Ugandan individuals who were currently attending an outpatient physiotherapy clinic at Mulago Hospital in the city of Kampala. Nine rehabilitation therapists from Mulago Hospital were interviewed in a focus-group format to identify factors that prevent individuals from attending therapy. Study participants identified a number of fears and misconceptions about the rehabilitation services being offered. Many individuals reported the cost and availability of transport as a major barrier. Interview respondents believed that by attending physiotherapy they were rejecting the use of a local healer and were benefiting from medically trained experts. Rehabilitation therapists reported responses similar to interview respondents. Individuals who are currently accessing rehabilitation services at Mulago Hospital are motivated and committed to their recovery process. These individuals reported a number of improvements since starting therapy. However, more research is required to better understand how local methods of healing influence health-seeking behaviours.

School-age children's fears, anxiety, and human figure drawings

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to identify the fears of school-age children and determine the relationship between fear and anxiety. Method: A descriptive, correlational, secondary analysis study was conducted using a convenience sample of 90 children between the ages of 8 and 12 years. Each child was instructed to complete the Revised Children's Anxiety Scale and then answer questions from a structured interview. On completion, each child was instructed to draw a human figure drawing. Frequency charts and correlational statistics were used to analyze the data. Results: Findings indicated that the most significant fears of the boys were in the categories of animals, safety, school, and supernatural phenomena, whereas girls were more fearful of natural phenomena. High correlations existed between anxiety scores and the number of fears and emotional indicators on human figure drawings. Discussion: Because human figure drawings are reliable tools for assessing anxiety and fears in children, practitioners should incorporate these drawings as part of their routine assessments of fearful children.

Fears in Swedish Children: A Normative Study of the Fear Survey Schedule for Children - Revised

The purpose of this study was to examine the level of fears in Swedish children and to examine the relation of those fears to state and trait anxiety. The purpose was also to do a normative study of FSSC-R (Fear Survey Schedule for Children - Revised). In total, 550 children between 8 and 16 years of age answered the questionnaires. The results indicate that there are no gender differences in total fear score, factor scores and number of fears. In contrast to earlier results, there was no correlation between fear and trait anxiety; however, a modest correlation was found between fear and state anxiety

Specific fears and phobias

Data on eight specific fears representing DSM-III-R simple phobia were analysed to evaluate: (a) their prevalence and (b) the validity of subtypes of specific phobia defined by DSM-IV. A modified version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview was administered to a probability sample of 8098 community respondents. Correlates of responses to questions concerning these fears were analysed. The most prevalent specific fears were of animals among women, and of heights among men. Slight evidence was found for specific phobia subtypes. Number of fears, independent of type, powerfully predicted impairment, comorbidity, illness course, demographic features, and family psychopathology. Number of specific fears may mark a general predisposition to psychopathology. More detailed information is needed to resolve the question of specific phobia subtypes.

Disclosing a diagnosis of dementia: Is age a factor?

Increasing public awareness, coupled with the wider availability of drug therapies for some dementing conditions, means that carers are often informed of the diagnosis of dementia. However it is unclear how much sufferers themselves are told about their diagnoses. There are a number of fears about the possibly harmful effects of giving sufferers this information, but these may be balanced by potential benefits. The aims of this study were to investigate how many sufferers of dementia were given diagnostic information, whether their age was a factor in whether they learned this information, who told them the diagnosis, and whether carers would wish to know themselves if they had dementia (and if this related to whether the sufferer learned their diagnosis). The study also aimed to elicit carers' reasons for giving or withholding diagnostic information. A self-report questionnaire was completed by 71 carers recruited through old age psychiatry services in East Anglia. Half of the sufferers had learned their diagnosis, more from their carers than their doctors. The age of the sufferer was found to be related to whether or not doctors told them their diagnosis. This was independent of the type of dementia (Alzheimer's or Pick's disease) or the specialism of the diagnosing doctor. This study did not elucidate reasons for this age effect, which could be the result of 'agist' attitudes by doctors, younger sufferers for information. Carers' wishes regarding themselves were related to whether they gave diagnostic information to the sufferer. Only 21% of carers were given an opportunity to discuss the issues involved. Younger carers were significantly more likely to feel that such an opportunity would have been useful. Most of the carers who had informed the sufferer said that the sufferer had wanted to know, or needed a meaningful explanation for their difficulties, rather than giving more practical legal or financial reasons. Carers who had not disclosed feared that diagnostic information would cause too much distress, or that the sufferers' cognitive impairments were too great an obstacle.

Frecuencia e intensidad de los miedos en los niños : datos normativos

In the present study we report the findings of a normative fear investigation with a sample of Spanish normal children (ranging in age from 9 to 11 years). We examined the frequency, intensity and content of fear using the Spanish Fear Survey Schedule for Children-Revised (FSSC-R; Ollendick, 1983). The fears reported by the Spanish children were found to be quite similar to those found in American, Australian and British children, and not very different from fears reported by Chinese children. Girls reported significantly higher levels of fearfulness (frequency and intensity) than boys, and both self-reported high levels of intensity and number of fears on the physical danger and death domain. Some significant differences between girls and boys were found on the content of children fears, being small animal fears which best discriminated between girls and boys. Results provide also support for validation of the Spanish version of the FSSC-R.

Fears of Senegalese Secondary School Students

Summary A questionnaire investigating the inventory of fears and worries of Senegalese adolescents was administered to 806 secondary school students; Croake's classification was utilized. School fears were found to be much more important in Senegal than in France or the United States. As has been noticed in industrialized countries, girls and children born of poorer parents were more subject to fears than boys and children of wealthier families. The number of fears increased with age.

Children's fears: a developmental comparison of normal and exceptional children.

The fears of 133 boys and girls aged 7 to 19, classified as educable mentally retarded (EMR), trainable mentally retarded (TMR), and specific learning disabled (SLD), were ascertained through self-report data and compared with those of 106 normal children aged 6 to 12. Similar developmental trends were found in all groups, with younger children reporting more unrealistic fears than older children. When mental age was calculated for the EMR and TMR children, their developmental trends closely approximated those of the normal children. In general, exceptional children were found to have a much wider range and a greater number of fears than normal children. Most fears were found to be realistic, learned, and dependent upon the child's intellectural and maturational level.

FEARS: THEIR CAUSE AND PREVENTION

Fear is the most universal of human experiences. But while it sometimes leads to a good result: escape from danger, most of the fears of civilized life are totally out of proportion to any danger involved. As such they always reduce efficient adjustments and often ruin lives. The greatest number of fears arise in childhood in the course of the child's everyday activities. For that reason, adults can do a good deal to prevent fear from entering a child's life, or, to shorten its career, if it already has taken root. Many fears are either wholly avoidable or else can be removed by simple measures when noted early enough. We sometimes think a person is unafraid because he does not show fear in its typical form, or because, as in the case of a very young child, he cannot say he is afraid. Even an older child who knows the words is not always aware that fear is the cause of his unhappiness, though this is apparent to the adult who has learned to correctly interpret the tell-tale signs of distress. A fear may be thought of as simple when it is evoked seldom and for a relatively short time, and when it effects only a small portion of the individual's personality, for example, a fear of thunder or lightning. Fears are complex when they are experienced for a long time in an intense form and when, as a result, a considerable part of one's emotional and intellectual life is damaged and everyday activities are handicapped. To dread contact with dirt is an instance of such a fear. Generally speaking, simple fears are found in children and yqung people, while complex fears are seen in adults. Fears do not all arise in the same manner and are not to be treated the same way. In order to prevent or remove a particular fear, it is important to learn something about the class to which it belongs. In what follows, fears are arranged in an order of ever increasing complexity from infancy to maturity.