Fears in anxious children

Abstract

Introduction

Fear is a distressing emotion aroused by a risk or a damage, real or imaginary. Fears have a warning function against dangers. Nevertheless, fear can also become in one of the most limiting elements of a person's life.

Objectives

To characterize the profile of fears presented in a sample of 19 children, aged between 8 and 13 years old, who had previously been diagnosed with one of the following: Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Separation Anxiety Disorder or Social Phobia.

Material and methods

The sample was taken from patients who participated in a cognitive-behavioral group therapy. The Spanish version of the Fear Survey Schedule for Children-Revised (FSSC-R) questionnaire was employed. The FSSC-R asks children to indicate on a 3-point scale (‘none’, ‘some’, ‘a lot’) how much they fear 80 specific stimuli or situations. Five basic categories of fears can be stablished: failure and criticism (17 items); the unknown (17 items); minor injury and small animals (13 items); danger and death (16 items); medical fears (5 items).

Results

The sample includes 19 children: 12 boys (63.2%) and 7 girls (36.8%). The median age is 10.74 years. The sample shows 15 excessive fears on average (those scored as ‘a lot’). Girls show higher rates of excessive fears than boys: 19 versus 13. The most common fears were ‘being hit by a car or truck’, ‘bombing attacks. Being invaded’, ‘a burglar breaking into our house’ and ‘falling from high places’.

Conclusions

Most common excessive fears belong to danger and death category. Females report more fears than males.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.