Aspects of middle childhood fears : reports by children and their parents from a South African farming community

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Fear is a normal, expected human emotion, and as such it is also part of children's normaldevelopment. South African research indicates that fear is context related. However, little is knownregarding fear in specific contexts, such as a South African farming community. In order to facilitatethe identification of excessive or abnormal fears, a reliable literature base regarding normal fears in thatspecific context is required. Without such a contextualised literature base, clinicians will find it difficultto distinguish between normal developmental fears and excessive or abnormal fears for children in thatspecific context. Due to the lack of research in South Africa regarding middle childhood fears fromchildren in a specific context, such as a farming community, the current study aims at exploring a fearprofile of middle childhood children from a South African farming community.The aim of the current study pertains to four research questions: (1) What are the content, number andintensity of fears of a group of middle childhood children from a South African farming community inthe Stellenbosch region? (2) Are there any differences between the Koala Fear Questionnaire (KFQ)scores without visual cues (KFQ1) and the KFQ scores with visual cues (KFQ2)? (3) Are there genderdifferences regarding content, number and intensity of fears of a group of middle childhood childrenfrom a South African farming community in the Stellenbosch region? (4) Are there differencesregarding content, number and intensity of fears of a group of middle childhood children from a SouthAfrican farming community in the Stellenbosch region as reported in child reports and parental reports?The participants consisted of a sample of 84 children between the ages of 10 and 12 years, attending alocal primary school in the Stellenbosch region in the Western Cape, South Africa, and the parents of56 of the children. Two measuring instruments were used to assess childrens' fears, namely the FearList Method (FLM) and the Koala Fear Questionnaire (KFQ). The parents completed the ParentalBiographical Questionnaire (PBQ).Analysis of the data from the FLM revealed that Wild animals was the largest fear category for thetotal sample of children (46.4%), with children expressing an average of 2.37 fears (SD = 0.875) and anaverage intensity of 2.88 (SD = 0.361).The findings of the current study are discussed and each of the four research questions is addressedindividually in order to facilitate a comprehensive answer to each.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University