The article introduces two interview methods for studying young children' fears, applied in separate studies with representative samples of children aged 5-6 in Finland ( N = 222) and Estonia ( N = 117). The semi-structured interview was based on the question, `What things are you afraid of?' The article describes the interview scheme as well as the interview process. The picture-aided interview was designed on the basis of the Fear Survey Schedule for Children - Revised (FSSC-R). The semistructured interviews showed that young children are capable of expressing a much wider range of fears (e.g. television programmes) than had been assumed earlier. The picture-aided interviews revealed more fears related to social relations than did the semi-structured interviews. Both methods are recommended for research use.

This study proceeds from the hypothesis that children's subjective well-being is too complex a phenomenon to be reduced to the family's social and economic resources. Randomized population-based surveys were carried out in two comparable towns in Finland and Estonia in 1993-1994and 2002-2003. The sampling criteria were children's age (5-6 years) and parental citizenship. The four net samples together comprised 421 children and their parents. Parents completed questionnaires on family background and family life, children's psychosomatic symptoms, worries and behaviour characteristics, and the children were interviewed about their fears and social networks. Family well-being was assessed on the basis of (1) satisfaction with family's financial situation, (2) parental strains, (3) parental health and (4) drinking problems. Childreported subjective well-being was analysed by reference to fears and social network characteristics as well as parent-reported psychosomatic symptoms, behaviour orientations and worries. The results indicate, firstly, that both family-level and subjective indicators and both positive and negative indicators differentiate consistently between Finnish and Estonian children. Secondly, material and some aspects of subjective well-being have increased in both countries, although media-related fears in particular have undermined subjective well-being as well. There are indications of qualitative changes in subjective well-being in both countries. Thirdly, financial and social problems as well as parental health problems correlate with children's psychosomatic symptoms, worries and fears. However children respond in different ways to different family stresses. The results underscore the importance of developing theory-based indicators and effective follow-up tools.

children, comparative, fear, social change, well-being,

Finnish and Estonian parents' assessments of their 5- to 6-year-old children's fears (selected items of the Ollendick Fear Survey Schedule) were compared with children's self-reported fears in a semistructured interview that included a picture-aided section. Representative samples from Finland and Estonia consisted of 330 child-parent pairs. The level of agreement between the informants'assessmentswas lowin both countries. Children reported more fears than did their parents in comparable items. Parents in both countries seem to underestimate children's fears. These findings suggest that children should be primary informants of their fears. In addition, the same types of differences in children's fears were revealed between the countries irrespective of the informant. Finnish children expressed more fears related to issues of mental overexcitation; the fears of Estonian children more often concerned concrete people's behavior.

This article compares the reasons for insecurity related to working life in different age groups in Finland and Estonia, and the coping strategies evident in the two countries. Insecurity related to working life is more common in Finland than in Estonia. The differences between the two countries are more distinct with respect to experienced work-related insecurity than to an experienced lack of well-being linked to work. This shows that feelings of insecurity are affected not only by external factors, but also by internal factors linked to a person's earlier development. The most common causes of insecurity for people of working age are unemployment, mental strain and difficulties in interpersonal relationships at the work place. The individual's willingness to find means of coping at work is more clearly evident in Estonia than in Finland. People of working age in Finland are more likely to attempt to change the external conditions of work than are their Estonian counterparts.