Fears and Fearfulness in South-African Children

Abstract

The present study examined common childhood fears in 9-to 13-year-old South-African children (N = 404) from white, coloured, and black cultural groups. Fears were assessed by means of two methods -the fear list method and the Fear Survey Schedule for Children-Revised (FSSC-R). Results showed that fear rank orders as obtained with the fear list method were quite different from those derived from the FSSC-R. Furthermore, clear differences in fear levels were found among the three cultural groups. More specifically, coloured and black South-African children displayed significantly higher fear levels than white children. Finally, differences were also found as to the content of prevalent fears in the three cultural groups. For example, common fears in coloured and black children were more frequently related to violence than in white children.

Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis of the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children among adolescents in the cape town metropole of South Africa

“…Burkhardt et al, 2003;Muris et al, 2002], our data showed no significant differences on MASC total and most subscale scores. Two exceptions, however, were the Harm Avoidance and Separation/Panic subscales.…”

Rethinking Conventional Wisdom: Ecological Effects on Potential Danger Preoccupation Salience

“…Ingman et al (1999), also using the FSSC-R, compared children and adolescents from Kenya and Nigeria (and also to other countries tested in previous studies), and found that Nigerian children reported higher levels of fear than Kenyan children, while children from both countries scored higher than UK, US, Australian and Chinese children. Burkhardt et al (2003), again using the FSSC-R as well as the Fear List Method to compare White, Colored, and Black children in South Africa, reported that results of the two instruments were not identical, but also not contradictory. On the Fear List Method, Black and Colored children reported a higher number of fears which they classified as serious compared to White children.…”

Het gelijk van Freud … over de oorsprong van abnormaal gedrag

“…In eigen onderzoek naar de angstniveaus van kinderen in Zuid-Afrika, werd consistent gevonden dat zwarte en gekleurde kinderen in Zuid-Afrika beduidend angstiger zijn dan de blanke kinderen in dit land (Burkhardt, Loxton, & Muris, 2003;Muris, Loxton, Neumann, & Du Plessis, in druk;Muris, Schmidt, Engelbrecht, & Perold, 2002). Deze verschillen werden vrijwel uitsluitend verklaard door de sociaal-economische omstandigheden waarin de kinderen opgroeien.…”