PRESCHOOLER’S FEARS: CHANGES DURING THE LAST TEN YEARS IN ESTONIA (1993-2002).
Merle Taimalu
University of Tartu, Estonia
Paper presented at the Spring conference of the Association for Teacher Education in Europe, University of Latvia, 3 May 2003
Summary
The purpose of paper is to analyze what things and how much are 5-6-year-old children afraid of and what changes have taken place in children’s fears during the last ten years. Interview method is used in the research. Samples of children aged 5-6 were 117 in 1993 and 91 in 2002. The interview includes two parts – the semi-structured part with question: “What things are you afraid of?” and the picture-aided part what consists of eight pictures. Now preschool children are afraid of more things than ten years ago. In 1993, the average amount of fears children mentioned in semi-structured interview was 4,3 and in 2002 it was 6,6. The most frequent preschooler’s fears in Estonia were connected with various animals, television and imagined creatures in 1993. In 2002, the three fears children mentioned more frequently were nightmares, fears related to television and various animals. In the picture-aided part of interview it became evident that the frequency of fears connected with social relations and separation was not so big in 2002 than in 1993.
Key words: preschool children, fears, change of children’s fears
1. Introduction
Fear is primitive, inborn emotion. Fear is normal reaction to real or imagined danger, is based on self-preservation and seems to be normal part of development (Gullone, King, 1997). Quite many fears are inborn (very loud voices) or developmental (separation, strangers). Most fears are learned and these cause individual differences in people’s fears. It is common to see the level of fearfulness as the function of individual genetic differences and environment’s influences (Marks, 1987). Human being has to learn to cope with his fears. But sometimes fears do not pass and can disorder child’s everyday life and development. So, we can tell about fears from the two viewpoints. On one hand, fears are necessary, and on the other hand fears can be sometimes problem, too.
Childhood fears are very common and it is well known that the objects of fears are related to cognitive development and children’s specific phases of development (Bauer, 1976). There is significant increase in the amount and variety of children’s fears in the beginning of preschool years (about age 3). This change is related to widening of child’s environment, development of fantasy, inability to separate fantasy and reality, and other developmental characteristics. As Jones & Jones have noted in 1928 already, many common childhood fears appear because of child’s increasing capability to perceive potential dangerousness of situation. Yet the child does not understand completeness of the situation and is not consequently able to control it (Ollendick, Yule, Ollier, 1991). Sometimes it is difficult to understand what the child really fears (for example he said: ”I am afraid of ghosts when I am alone in dark room and I hear wind blowing outside”) (Kirmanen, Lahikainen, 1997). Small children’s fears are often related to concrete things and situations that seem to be frightening, to the contrary real things and situations that can cause big trouble. Gradually during children’s development fears of ghosts and unreal animals change to fear of real-life violence that can hurt them actually (Owen, 1998).
The study of Bouldin & Pratt (1998) in combination with previous fear research suggests an inverted U-curve across childhood and adolescence, with fears initially increasing from preschool to early school, and then reducing toward adolescence. May be there is some optimal or “normal” level of anxiety (fearfulness) what comes in time through maturing process (Gullone, King, Ollendick, 2001).
The most common fears during preschool years are nightmares, familiar and unfamiliar animals, imagined creatures (ghosts, monsters etc.), darkness and dark places, television (Bauer, 1976, Kirmanen, Lahikainen, 1997, Muris, Merckelbach, 2000, Goodman, Gurian, 2001a).
1.1. Influence of changing society
Changes in society influence children’s fears, too. Probably because of many social pressures and constantly growing violence, small children today are afraid of things they are not yet prepared for (Owen, 1998). At the same time, many fears of small children have remained and probably always remain the same (animals, imagined creatures, darkness, being alone, separation etc).
There have been many rapid changes in Estonia during the last 12 years. Many values have changed in our society and changes occurred in family, too. We can suppose that these changes have impact on children’s welfare and security. It is necessary to study security of small children through their fears.
The aim of this paper is to answer the following questions: what things and how much are 5-6-year-old children afraid of today? What changes have taken place in children’s fears during the last ten years? Do these changes relate to changes in society and family?
2. Method and Sample
2.1. Sample
Samples of children aged 5-6 were 117 in 1993 and 91 in 2002. They were selected occasionally from population register. The sample consisted of 50,5 % boys and 49,5 % girls. 50,5 % of children was 5-years old and 49,5 % was 6-years old.
2.2. Method
The paper is based on some questions of wide co-research between Estonia and Finland. Method of the study was created by main coordinators of this research, professor A.R. Lahikainen (University of Tampere, Finland) and professor I. Kraav (University of Tartu, Estonia).
Many child researches maintain that children themselves are the best informants in studies about children’s problems. Several authors are mentioned that agreement between parents’ and children’s answers is low. Although parents offer important information, children themselves must be considered primary informants about their fears and worries (Muris et al., 2001). Adults often cannot understand children’s fears properly. Misapprehension of child’s fears may happen because of different understanding of fear by adults and children (Goodman, Gurian, 2001a). It is very important that in study about small children’s fears researches choose suitable methods (questionnaire for parents, interviewing children themselves, opened questions, concrete situations etc). So we get sometimes different, but more thorough information about children’s fears.
Interview method was used in the research for children and questionnaire for parents. The interview includes two parts – the semi-structured part with open question: “What things are you afraid of?” and the picture-aided part that consists of eight pictures. At the end of open question the fears related to television, day-care, animals and nightmares were asked if the child had not mentioned anything about them.
The picture-aided part was designed on the basis of the Fear Survey Schedule for Children (FSSC-R) (Ollendick, 1983). The eight pictures were presented with a short story about a girl/a boy in the picture (depending on the sex of the interviewed). The pictures represented fearful situations: fear of failure and criticism (other child is teasing, parents are arguing, parents are critical toward the child), fear of unknown (going to bed alone in the dark, parents are going to trip), fear of danger and death (getting lost in the forest and in the town surrounded by strange people), medical fears (going to the doctor).
In measuring the intensity of fears both in open question and in picture-aided part we used the technique developed by Carpenter (1990) (Children’s Global Rating Scale) where children can assess their experience of pain and fear. While the child was speaking about the fear the interviewer showed him/her a picture in which there was three different lines: the upper line with sharp curves designated great, the middle line with moderate curves average and the lower, straight line minimal fear. Children understood well what was expected of them and willingly used this technique.
Using method like this enables to get more complete picture about children’s fears. Semi-structured part of interview helps to find out the amount and variety of fears. Picture-aided part of interview enables to study more closely fears related to social relations and separation, and fears that children do not make conscious.
3. Results
3.1. Amount of children’s fears according to semi-structured interview
There are some significant differences in the amount of fears between 1993 and 2002 according to the question: ”What things are you afraid of?” (table 1). Now preschool children are afraid of more things than ten years ago. In 1993 the average amount of fears was 4,3 and in 2002 it was 6,6. In 2002 there were no children who said: ”I have no fears”. Ten years ago the most of children brought out from two to five fears. In 2002 there were significantly more children who mentioned from six to nine and ten and more fears.
Table 1. The number of children’s fears according to question: “What things are you afraid of?” (%)
(n (1993)=117, n (2002)=91)
Number of fears / 1993 / 2002 / p<0 / 5 / 0 / 0,05
1 / 3 / 4
2-5 / 71 / 41 / 0,01
6-9 / 16 / 38 / 0,01
10 and more / 5 / 15 / 0,05
The source of data from 1993 is the author’s MA thesis “Preschooler’s fears as the security endangering factors, and coping ways“(Taimalu, 1997).
3.2. Children’s fears according to the semi-structured interview
The open question “What things are you afraid of?” helps to find out the amount and big variety of children’s fears. The fears were divided into 19 categories (table 2). In 2002 the most often Estonian children brought out as frightening nightmares, television, unfamiliar animals, imaginary creatures and familiar animals. The ten most common fears in 1993 and 2002 are a little different (table 3).
There are some significant differences between children’s fears in 1993 and 2002 (table 2). In 2002 children brought out more frequently nightmares, television-related fears, imagined creatures (imagination-related fears) and fears connected with behaviour of peers. The frequency of some fears has decreased today. In 2002 children mentioned less often than in 1993 the fear of unfamiliar and exotic animals, familiar animals, separation (losing a loved one), new things and situations and going to the doctor.
Table 2. Preschool Estonian children’s fears in 1993 and 2002 according to question: “What things are you afraid of?” (%) (n(1993)=117, n(2002)=91)
1993 / 2002Fear category / No fear / Minimal fear / Average fear / Great fear / No fear / Minimal fear / Average fear / Great fear / p<
Nightmares / 95 / 1 / 2 / 3 / 12 / 23 / 29 / 36 / 0,01
Television / 52 / 6 / 22 / 20 / 18 / 13 / 14 / 55 / 0,01
Unfamiliar animal / 31 / 1 / 24 / 44 / 35 / 7 / 14 / 44 / 0,01
Imaginary creatures / 58 / 2 / 16 / 24 / 35 / 10 / 18 / 37 / 0,01
Familiar animal / 30 / 3 / 37 / 30 / 37 / 13 / 22 / 28 / 0,01
Minor injuries and danger situations / 77 / 3 / 10 / 10 / 69 / 11 / 9 / 11
Behavior of peers / 90 / 3 / 3 / 4 / 71 / 14 / 9 / 6 / 0,01
Darkness/dark places / 82 / 4 / 10 / 4 / 78 / 4 / 8 / 10
Strange people / 77 / 1 / 8 / 14 / 79 / 2 / 6 / 13
Behavior of significant adults / 88 / 3 / 5 / 4 / 86 / 3 / 6 / 6
Big accidents and death / 88 / 1 / 3 / 8 / 88 / 0 / 7 / 6
Being alone/ getting lost / 90 / 0 / 5 / 5 / 88 / 2 / 3 / 7
War, guns, attacks / 93 / 0 / 4 / 3 / 89 / 2 / 3 / 6
Losing a loved one/separation / 77 / 1 / 12 / 10 / 91 / 2 / 2 / 4 / 0,01
Going to sleep and night fears / 94 / 2 / 3 / 1 / 95 / 0 / 3 / 2
New things and situations / 80 / 4 / 8 / 8 / 95 / 2 / 0 / 3 / 0,01
Thunderstorms etc / 99 / 0 / 0 / 1 / 96 / 0 / 2 / 2
Traffic accidents, vehicles / 97 / 1 / 3 / 0 / 97 / 0 / 2 / 1
Going to the doctor / 92 / 0 / 4 / 4 / 100 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0,01
Table 3. The ten most common fears of preschool Estonian children in 1993 and 2002 reported in semi-structured interview (percentages indicating the amount of children whose fear was “average + great”)
fear category / 1993 / fear category / 2002unfamiliar/exotic animals / 68 / television / 69
familiar animals / 67 / nightmares / 65
television / 42 / unfamiliar/exotic animals / 58
imaginary creatures / 40 / imaginary creatures / 55
separation / 22 / familiar animals / 50
strange people / 22 / minor injuries / 20
minor injuries / 20 / strange people / 19
new things and situations / 16 / darkness/dark places / 18
darkness/dark places / 14 / Behavior of peers / 15
big injuries, accidents and death / 11 / big injuries, accidents and death / 13
3.3. Children’s fears according to the picture-aided interview
Picture-aided part of interview enables to study more closely fears related to social relations, relations with significant adults and separation, and fears what small children often do not make conscious.
In 1993 and 2002 the three most common fears of Estonian children were same. The most frightening was getting lost in the forest, the second – going to bed in the dark and the third – getting lost in the town surrounded by strange people (table 4).
Table 4. Preschool Estonian children’s fears in 1993 and 2002 according to the picture-aided interview (%)
(n(1993)=117, n(2002)=91)
1993 / 2002Fear
/ No fear / Minimal fear / Average fear / Great fear / No fear / Minimal fear / Average fear / Great fear / p<Getting lost in the forest / 1 / 12 / 35 / 51 / 3 / 11 / 25 / 60
Going to bed in the dark / 3 / 21 / 30 / 46 / 9 / 17 / 28 / 47
Getting lost in the town surrounded by strange people / 3 / 17 / 46 / 34 / 13 / 21 / 30 / 36 / 0,01
Parents’ criticism toward the child / 5 / 21 / 43 / 31 / 19 / 20 / 25 / 36 / 0,01
Going to the doctor / 11 / 23 / 41 / 25 / 26 / 21 / 26 / 26 / 0,01
Parents leaving for a long trip / 4 / 18 / 35 / 43 / 35 / 15 / 25 / 24 / 0,01
Being teased / 15 / 34 / 39 / 12 / 37 / 19 / 26 / 18 / 0,01
Parents’ quarrel / 15 / 37 / 30 / 18 / 45 / 15 / 15 / 24 / 0,01
In the picture-aided part it became evident that children were afraid of problems in social situations and separation less often in 2002 than in 1993. There were some significant differences: in 2002 children were rarer than in 1993 afraid of getting lost in the town surrounded by strange people, parents’ criticism toward him, going to the doctor, parents leaving for a trip, being teased by peers and parents’ quarrel. It is interesting to mention that in 2002 there were more children who were not afraid of these six situations and fewer them whose degree of fear was “average”. But the amount of children whose degree of fear was “great” was quite the same in 2002 and 1993.