Fear and Fearfulness

Fears and Fearfulness in South African Children is ""
Children from a lower socioeconomic status - in this case coloured and black children - reports significantly higher rankings of fears and fearfulness than white children. The comparisons discovered that this clear difference between the three groups in terms of socioeconomic status was the only significant difference measured, whereas gender and family status revealed no noteworthy differences. These distinctions between the cultural groups are further supported by the “greater frequency and intensity of fears among children with a lower socioeconomic background” . It is fascinating to note how these fears of the children from the lower socioeconomic backgrounds are influenced by the current social dilemmas of their respective societies, for example, the coloured children feared death and crime very highly, whereas the black children were more afraid of gangs and transport (Burkhardt, et al., 2005). It was therefore also concluded that “non-white children from the African continent are in general characterized by high levels of fearfulness” . The author also makes note of a very specific implication to the socioeconomic status and development of South Africa. As quoted by the American Psychiatric Association, 1994 in Burkhardt, et al., 2005, coloured and black children had “significantly higher levels of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders anxiety disorder symptoms than the white children. These disorders can therefore have a direct influence on these children’s cognitive and emotional development and as a result, influence the way in which they will be able to take part in the development of the country.
The three main findings in this research are as follows: the results from the fear list method and the Fear Survey Schedule for Children-Revised (FSSC-R) were clearly different from one another; there was an apparent difference in the results between the three cultural groups, where the coloured and black children displayed more fears than the white children; and there were remarkable differences found in the content of prevalent fears between the cultures.
The instruments used to conduct this research were the fear list and the FSSC-R. With the fear list children had to write down their fears and how much they rated it. They were unguided in this exercise and thus wrote their fears more honestly. With the FSSC-R the children completed this standard, self-report questionnaire.
The adequacy of these methods is questionable though. According to Gullone (quoted in Burkhardt et al. , 2005), the “fear list is a widely used method with a high “face validity”, with little actual evidence for its reliability and validity”. This method has therefore little space to judge and investigate its validity in an acceptably scientific method, since it relies solely on the ideas and perceptions of the testee. In terms of the FSSC-R previous research by Ollendick, Yule & Ollier, 1991 (quoted in Burkhardt, et al., 2005) has shown that “this factor structure can be generalized across children and adolescents across various Western countries”. Therefore the answers may be a bit too generic in the sense that this structure merely tests the testee’s reaction to the proposed situations and gives no opportunity for personal input in terms of other fear inducing situations.

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