Selfgerapporteerde vrese van 'n geselekteerde groep voorskoolse kinders in 'n lae tot middel sosio-ekonomiese statusgebied

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The primary aim of this study was to establish the content and number of the fears expressed bypre-school children in a low to middle class socio-economic area. In South Africa, a similar studyhas only been undertaken in a high class socio-economic area (Martalas, 1999).A further aim of this study was to establish whether there were differences in the fears expressed bythe participants and, if so, whether these differences correlate with specific biographical variables.A predominantly qualitative method of data collection was used in this research. The data wascollected by conducting a semi-structured interview with the participants and obtaining drawings oftheir fears. The sample included 50 pre-school children between the ages of 5 and 7 years attending3 preschools in a low to middle class socio-economic area. The broad non-verbal intelligencefunctioning of the participants were measured by the Goodenough-Harris-Draw-a-Man test(Richter, Griesel en Wortley, 1989). The average non-verbal intelligence functioning of theparticipants was low average according to the DAM norms.The data was analysed quantitatively. The content and number of fears, as reported by theselected group of pre-school children in the low to middle class socio-economic area, wereestablished and grouped into existing categories. Furthermore the relationship between the numberof expressed fears, with regard to content and number, and the three biographical variables, gender,socio-economic status and parent report, was established. Accordingly, differences between andcorrelations with biographical variables regarding race, parental marital positions, sibling structures,education of parents, their working patterns and the fears reported by parents, as well as by theparticipants were calculated quantitatively.The method of combining a semi-structured interview with participants and drawings of their fearsproved to be successful, as none of the participants reported no fears.The results of this research showed that the content of the fears was similar in many ways to that ofprevious research results. Animal fears, at 57,24 % of all the fears expressed by the participants,comprised by far the largest category of fears. The number of the expressed fears ranged from 1 to 10 per participant, and the average number of fears per participant was 2,9. This figure was lowerthan the average number of fears found in previous South African research (Martalas, 1999).Consistent with previous research, the current study showed that girls (63,45 %) had reported morefears than boys (36,55 %). In the current study however, this difference was not statisticallysignificant. Some gender differences were statistically significant in that girls reported more fearsof wild animals than boys and boys reported more fears in the category other fears (for example afan, a brick, a bomb, an accident and videos) than girls. Although these results differ from SouthAfrican research by Martalas (1999) research, it is similar to most other research results.Parents reported fewer fears than the participants and they also reported the category medical,which the participants did not mention. Parents also reported more fears for girls than for the boys.The researcher concludes with some recommendations for further studies.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University