Expressed fears and coping mechanisms of a selected group of preschool children

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Although fear is an integral part of normal human functioning, the onset of many anxietydisorders can be traced back to childhood. For preventative intervention to be effective,it is important to obtain knowledge of children's normative fears and coping mechanismsin order for parents and caregivers to understand and contribute towards mediatingpotentially stressful experiences of young children in their care.The primary aim of the study was to obtain normative data regarding the content andnumber of expressed fears, coping mechanisms and perceived efficacy in response tothese fears by a culturally diverse group of South African preschool children living inStellenbosch in the Western Cape Province. The secondary aim was to ascertainwhether any differences in the expressed fears, coping mechanisms and perceivedefficacy of the participants were found with respect to the independent variables ofgender, culture, socio-economic status (SES) and community comparisons with regardto violence risk. Parental perception of children's fears, coping mechanisms andperceived efficacy, compared to the children's own views, were also taken into account.The participants consisted of 152 preschool children selected from the population ofchildren between 5 and 7 years attending a preschool or day-care setting for at least 3months prior to testing.The study was of an exploratory and descriptive nature. A predominantly qualitativemethod of data collection was used. Measuring instruments consist of the Goodenough-Harris Drawing Test, as well as semi-structured interviews in combination with drawings.Parental perceptions of children's fears, coping mechanisms and perceived efficacy, aswell as participants' background information were obtained by means of a Biographicalquestionnaire.The data were analysed and coded according to categories based on emerging themes.The results showed similarities in many ways to that of the existing body of knowledge.The largest proportion of participants reported having animal fears, especially wildanimal fears, showing that this is a relatively common type of fear in normal children between the ages of 5 and 7. Other high-frequency fear categories that emerged are thefears of the dark, night, bad dreams; fantasy people fears; real people fears; and fearsof physical harm. A total number of 429 fears were expressed, ranging from 1 to 9 perparticipant, with an average of 2.8 fears per child for the overall sample. Parents'perceptions of the content and number of their children's fears differed hugely fromthose expressed by the children. Social/spiritual support was found to be the mostfrequently utilised, as well as perceived effective coping mechanism. Similarities withregard to the parents' perceptions were also find in this regard.Significant differences regarding the content of expressed fears were found amongst thegroups relating to culture, SES and violence risk comparisons. Gender and SESdifferences were found to be significant amongst the groups with regard to the utilisation·oftbping mechanisms and perceived efficacy. These differences yielded few similaritiesupon comparisons to the findings of previous studies.The implications of the present study' findings for the South African context as well asrecommendations for further studies are discussed.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University