Fears in childhood and adolescence and their relationship with self -esteem

Fear constitutes a primitive alarm unsystem that allows the child to avoid situations that can become potentially dangerous. They are normal, adaptive and frequent phenomena (horse, 2005), especially common in childhood and adolescence. It is an emotion that is experienced throughout life, although feared situations vary with age. The biological, psychological and social development, typical of the different evolutionary stages, explains the decrease or abandonment of some fears and the appearance of new ones to be able to adapt to the changing demands required by the medium (Pelechano, 1981).

However, in some children and adolescents, Fears can become chronic due to conditioning, modeling and negative information (Báguena and Chisbert, 1998). In online psychology we leave you a complete study on fears in childhood and adolescence and their relationship with self -esteem.

1. Why are we afraid in adolescence
2. Different types of fear depending on the subject in question
3. Fear affects self -esteem
4. Study on fear in adolescence and self -esteem: participants
5. The method that was followed in the study
6. Instruments
7. Analysis of data
8. Results: the most common fears
9. Results: sex differences in fear scores
10. Differences in scores according to age
11. Results: intensity of fears in the sample
12. Conclusions

Why are we afraid in adolescence

From an evolutionary perspective (Echeburúa, 1993), Fears are universal and instinctive responses, Without previous learning. According to Marks (1991), babies do not usually experience fear before 6 months of life. It is from this age that they begin to express important evolutionary fears, such as fears at the heights, strangers and separation, however, the universality and instinctive nature of these fears are being questioned, since situations such as fear of strange people, who appears around 6-8 months of age, is modulated by experience.

Fear tends to appear less frequently if contact with the strange person is done gradually and is not short -lived. Similarly, if the stranger is a woman or a child, fear is usually also a minor (Toro, 1986). Differences in fears have also been proven when the parents of the minors separate (Orgiles, Méndez, Espada and García Fernández, 2008) expressing greater school fears than children with unpant parents, which would endorse the theory of learning and acquisition of fears for changes in paternal educational styles.

Fear is not phobia or anxiety

The concept of fear must differentiate it from similar others and that, often, are used, erroneously, as synonyms: anxiety and phobias. If we try differentiate the anxiety of fear, We can say that, in the case of anxiety, the causes of discomfort are difficult to identify, while in the case of fear it is quite clear that what causes the psychophysiological, motor and/or cognitive reaction in the child is the stimulus to the who fears. Similarly, anxiety does not have a certain beginning or an end, just as it does not disappear when what originates its anxiety is not present, circumstances that do not happen in fears.

With respect to The phobias, in these a disproportionate response appears in relation to the stimulus, that initially does not constitute an objective threat to the child, and an unbridled response, since the answer that negatively affects its academic performance, its relationship with the family, in their personal development ..., while fears is of such intensity ... while fears ... while fears They are adaptive and congruent to the danger of stimulus. What is evident is that the intense fears that occur during childhood or during adolescence can lead to phobias, or other anxiety problems, during adulthood (Valiente, Sandín and Chorot, 2002a).

Although the fears are presented in the vast majority of children, the phobias evaluated as clinically significant, seem to be present in just 3.5% of children and adolescents (McCabe, Antony and Ollendck, 2005)

The prevalence of fears, usually, has been studied by calculating the total number of fears experienced by a population given of children or adolescents, obtaining disparate results depending on the study, oscillating the number of fears between 14 (Olleridk et al., 1989) and 22.48 (Shore and Rapport, 1998). On the other hand, the intensity of fears has been obtained in the studies by calculating the global fear level or in each of the dimensions of the FSSC-R, obtaining similar results that with the prevalence.

Different types of fear depending on the subject in question

If we analyze the differences in sex Of those evaluated, most studies indicate that prevalence and intensity is greater in the female sex than in the masculine (brave, sandin, chorot and tabar, 2002c; horse et al, 2006; Valdez et al., 2010), both for children and teenagers, these differences in fears of small animals being especially significant.

On the other hand, if we analyze the differences in the prevalence and intensity of fears according to age, Research based on the FSSC-R indicates that it tends to decrease as the years go by (Shore et al, 1998; Valiente, Sandín, Chorot and Tabar, 2003; González, 2005; Horse et al, 2006), which which It is consistent with the theories that claim that normative fears tend to decrease as children grow, considering transient phenomena that are associated with development, contrasting with phobias (Sandín, 1997), although there are differences depending on the type of fear.

In this way (Méndez, 1999), adolescents obtain the lowest average scores in the children. However, it should be noted that a slight rise in pre-adolescence is appreciated, with slightly older scores than in younger children. In general, we can affirm that, over the years, the nature of children …).

Regarding these, it seems that there is a global social fear around the age of 9, and that social fears become more differentiated from then on (Bokhorst, Westenberg, Oosterlaan and Heyne, 2008). From 12 to 18 the fears that have to do with interpersonal relationships and loss of self -esteem, (Echeburúa, 1993; Méndez, English and Hidalgo, 2002) increase. However, both in childhood and adolescence, studies indicate that fears belonging to the “danger and death” dimension are the most frequent (Horse et al, 2006)

Analyzing the comorbidities studied of fears with various disorders or problems that may affect children and adolescents, there are numerous jobs (Byrne, 2000; Ollendck, Yule, Oilier, 1990; Sandín, Chorot, Brave, Sanced and Lostao 2007; Sandín, Chorot , Valiente and Sanced, 2002; Valiente, Sandín and Chorot, 2002b) that relate fears to anxiety. They highlight a positive correlation, between moderate and strong depending on the authors, between both variables. In these same studies, it is analyzed The relationship between fears and depression, being in this case variables that do not correlate strongly between them. A negative, although weak correlation has also been described, with negative affectivity (Valiente et al., 2002b)

Fear affects self -esteem

There are very few studies whose line of research is the relationship between fears and self -esteem. In one of them (Byrne, 2000), variables such as self -esteem, anxiety, fears and coping strategies are compared in an Australian children's sample (n = 224), where it is reflected that children have a higher self -esteem that girls, but their relationship with fears is not clear. If there are, however, numerous works that analyze the relationships between phobias, mainly of a social type, with self -esteem (olive groves, piqueras and Rosa, 2006; Vallés, Olivares and Rosa, 2007; Zubeidat, Fernández Parra, Sierra and Salinas , 2007) where its negative correlation is revealed, mainly in adolescent population, and significantly greater in women.

For this reason, in our work we want to explore What kind of relationship exists between self -esteem and fears, forecasting a negative relationship as described in phobias, and being greater in social fears. This would go in the line of what was targeted by Veruzco, Lucio and Durán (2004), who claim that people with low self -esteem have a tendency towards fear, doubt and defense behavior.

The objectives of our work were, on the one hand, to know the prevalence and intensity of fears in schoolchildren in a sample of the municipality of Alicante, establishing a classification of the most common fears. On the other hand, we intended to know if there were differences, according to age, in the prevalence and intensity of these fears, as well as knowing the differences according to the sex of the participants in our study. Finally, we wanted to analyze the relationship between the level of self -esteem and the intensity and prevalence of fears.

Starting from the evidence of literature, we can predict that:

1. The most common fears will be those related to the “fears of danger and death” dimension
2. There will be greater prevalence and intensity of fears among girls than among the boys
3. The level of general prevalence and intensity of fears will be lower in adolescents (13-14 years) than in pre-adolescents (10-12 years)
4. The level of general prevalence of fears will range between 14 and 22 relevant fears
5. There will be a negative correlation between self -esteem and intensity and prevalence of fears.

Study on fear in adolescence and self -esteem: participants

The incidental sample was made up of 341 subjects, All of them students of a private school in the municipality of Alicante, belonging to the third primary cycle (5th and 6th) and the first secondary cycle (1st and 2nd). Of the 341 minors, most of them were male (199 boys in front of 142 girls). Regarding the ages of the sample, these were between 10 and 14 years (m = 11.92, dt = 1.24 years), being the average ages of the practically identical female and male groups: 11,91 (11,91 (11,91 ( Dt = 1.18) In the girls, compared to 11.92 (Dt = 1.29) in the boys.

Therefore, significant age differences between both groups appear do not appear (Graph 1). If we divide the minors by age groups, considering pre-adolescence until 12 years, and adolescence from 13 (Martínez, 1996) we would have 217 pre-adolescents (123 boys and 91 girls) in our study in front) front) to 127 teenagers (76 boys and 51 girls).

The participants, students of a private center, had a medium-high or high socioeconomic level, and with a religious formation to highlight, dedicating part of the school time to prayers, works related to religion, celebrations of their employer ..

As we could meet by the center's psychopedagogical team, none of the students, selected for the study, possessed any limitation that prevented them from performing both tests. However, they did not consider the study in the 2nd cycle, as was initially our intention, since they sensed that the FSSC-R test was not going to be understandable by the students of these ages, and that it could cause consequences such as consequences such as the acquisition of fears that did not have previously. For this reason, we increase the ages of the sample to choose.

The method that was followed in the study

All subjects were evaluated in their respective classrooms. For the organization of the calendar and the schedules of the test pass, we have the Psychopedagogue of Primary, who stated that the best option was to provide the questionnaires at the schedules in which the tutors gave class to their tutoring group, so that it was The planning and that the normal academic functioning of the center.

When carrying out the evaluations, we initially have Tutor's support, Who explained to the students the reason we were there, presented us to the minors, and on some occasions, remained in the classroom for a while until the students was calm, at which time he left the classroom and began with the explanation of the questionnaires, the objectives that were intended with them, the way in which they were completed, and the prior resolution of doubts that could arise. The administration of the tests was carried out collectively, without any incident to highlight.

Instruments

In order to know the intensity and prevalence of phobias in the minors evaluated, we made the application of the Spanish version of the Fear Survey Schedule for Children-Review (FSSC-R; OLLEDECK, 1983; Sandín, 1997) to all the subjects of the sample. It consists of 80 items of 3 levels of intensity (nothing, a little and much). In turn, the questionnaire includes the following 5 subscales:

• Fear of failure and criticism
• Fear of small animals and minor damage
• Fear of physical dangers and death
• fear of the unknown
• Medical fears

Studies recently in Spain with the aforementioned version of the FSSC-R, have provided psychometric data that demonstrates their divergent and convergent validity, a high internal consistency, and a structure of five factors similar to that established in the English version of the test (Sandín and Chorot, 1998a; Valiente, 2001; Valiente et al, 2002b; Valiente et al., 2003;). However, we opted for our own factor analysis, following the method of horse et al (2006), in which we find a new dimension, which explains a higher percentage of the variance than the “Medical Fears” factor.

This factor We call "fear of novelty and social evaluation". POrighe so, in our work we will include 6 and not 5 dimensions. The version of the test used is in the CD-ROM that includes the horse manual (2005). This version differs from that of Sandín in which in the latter, item 73 (fear of Russia) is eliminated, and the item 62 is unfolded (fear of being alone) in two, so that in the version of Sandín, the item 73 appeared as "being alone out of home". In the version that we use, on the other hand, item 73 appears stated as "the terrorists", a fear that we consider quite current and that we decided to include it in our study.

Rosenberg questionnaire

On the other hand, to Evaluate students' self -esteem, We decided to use the Rosenberg questionnaire (Rosenberg Self-Eastem Scale; Rosenberg, 1965), due to its good psychometric properties, (Rosenberg, 1965; Baños and Guillén, 2000; Vázquez, Jiménez and Vázquez-Morejón, 2004). It is one of the most used scales for the global measurement of self -esteem, whose contents focus on the feelings of respect and acceptance of itself. The scale consists of 10 items, half of which are negatively stated.

Each of the elements is scored from 1 to 4, depending on whether the subject considers that he is "very agree", "agree", "disagree" or "very disagree" with the phrase stated. In this way, in the interpretation of the questionnaire we know that if a subject is between 30 and 40 points, he will have high self -esteem; If it is between 25 and 29 points, it presents an average self -esteem, being convenient to improve it, not yet presenting serious problems; and those who obtain a score of less than 25 points, are considered to have low self -esteem, presenting significant problems.

Analysis of data

Statistical analyzes have been carried out with the program SPSS 15.0. To determine the intensity, frequency and types of fears by ages and sex, frequency analysis, descriptive analysis, comparisons of means and contingency tables were performed, as well as The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test To know if the total scores in the FSSC-R were adjusted to a normal distribution.

A factor analysis of Main components with Varimax rotation, To achieve the dimensions in which we could classify the items in our sample. In order to know if there were significant differences in fears depending on the sex variable, it was chosen to perform the Pearson chi-square test. On the other hand, to know if significant differences were produced in fears depending on the age of the subjects, a factor anova was made.

Finally, to determine if there was a correlation between self-esteem and the frequency and intensity of fears, as well as with the dimensions of the FSSC-R, the Pearson correlation test With each of them.

Results: the most common fears

To make a classification of the most common fears, we choose to choose only those items that were scored by the sample subjects With a 3 (“much fear”), as proposed in studies similar to ours (Sandín, Chorot, Valiente and Sanced, 1998b; Valiente et al, 2002). From Table 3 analysis, we can conclude that practically all fears (9 of 10), and taking into account our factorial analysis, coinciding in these items with those previously carried out (Valiente, 2001; Horse et al, 2006) belong to the dimension of "fears of danger and death". The last item ("get bad notes"), corresponds to the "school and criticism factor" factor.

If we make the comparison between the average scores in the items taking into account the 3 intensity levels of the FSSC-R (minimum 1, maximum 3), with the items scored with “much fear”, we observe a great correlation between both indicators (r = 0.935). As we see in Table 4, L10 more intense fears are exactly identical, varying only order in one of them.

In order not to limit ourselves to knowing what are the situations that originate most in children and adolescents, we also investigate which were those items that had been less scored with “much fear” in the FSSC-R-R. From this analysis, Table 5 follows, which indicates a large number of situations that were scored as very feared for only 8 or less school.

Results: sex differences in fear scores

Analyzing the total scores in the FSSC-R, obtained in each of the sexes, we observe that, as average, Girls' scores are more than 13 points older than boys (135.54 compared to 122.42). Although the results of the Chi-square independence test (p = 0.098) would indurate us to conclude that there are no significant differences between both sexes in the total fears scores, if we perform a more detailed analysis item by item, we verify that in a 87.5% of the items, the average scores are superior in the female sex; and that in more than half of situations (44 of 80) the differences are significant at a 95% confidence level. In addition, it should be noted that in only 2 of these situations where relevant distinctions are appreciated, it is the boys who score above the girls.

If we compare the scores in each of the dimensions obtained in our factorial analysis, we observe how in all of them, the scores are also greater in the group of girls being statistically significant the differences except in the factors related to social fears: “Fear to criticism/school situations "and" fear of novelty/social evaluation ". This happened for all age groups: in the 4 factors where the differences were significant between boys and girls, schoolchildren of all ages have an average score greater than the boys of the same age, and it is in the social factors where they alternate The predominance depending on the years, highlighting in the “fear of criticism/school situations” factor the only significant difference in the dimensions of the girls over the girls, found in 14 -year -old schoolchildren.

As for the prevalence of fears, the trend is maintained, since here also the girls have, on average, 5 very feared situations more than the boys (16.45 compared to 11.46). In this case, by contrary, if significant differences appear between both sexes (p = 0.006). Besides, In 80% of the items, girls have greater intense fear scores than boys. The distribution of the prevalence by sex in each of the dimensions can be seen reflected in graph 5, where we appreciate the same trend as in the intensity of fears: small differences for social fears, and moderate or large differences for the rest of dimensions, with a difference: this time, significant differences are not obtained in medical fears (p> 0.05)

On the other hand, we must emphasize that, whether we take into account the average score of the item and the number of subjects that score “a lot of fear”, the low percentage of situations in which it is the boys who are above the girls , coincide with less intense fears in the sample.

Determining that proportion of both groups is at risk, if we take into account the percentage of schoolchildren that refer to intense general fear (scores above 172 in the FSSC-R), we see that they exist Important differences between the girls group (4.2% exceed the cutting point) and that of boys (1.5% exceed this limit). And in terms of differences in the types of fears, we can observe how the percentage of girls that scores higher than the boys becomes evident in the 10 most common fears in the total sample.

A relevant aspect that can be mentioned is The great concordance that exists among the 10 most common fears Through sex groups. In the case of boys, their 10 most intense fears coincide with the 10 of the total sample. In the girls, on the contrary, we find 2 situations within the 10 most feared that did not appear in the classification of the total sample: "Lose in an unknown place" (item chosen by 52.8% of the girls with the option of "Much fear") and "Burn or fire" (chosen by 51.4%), which would replace, with respect to the boys and the total sample, to the items "be sent to the director of the school" and "take bad grades".

Thus, according to the factorial dimensions of the most expressed fears, while in the boys there would be no variation with respect to the total sample (9 of the 10 situations would be framed in the group "Fear of physical hazards and death"), in the Girls the 10 most prevalent fears would be of this dimension, there are none, therefore, of the factor "fear of school situations and criticism".

Differences in scores according to age

If we observe the intensity of fears depending on the age of the subjects,s 12 -year -old boys and girls are those who have the highest scores average In the FSSC-R (M = 131.36), while the children who are 14 are the ones who obtain lower scores (M = 124.46). If we compare pre-adolescents (10-12 years) with adolescents (13-14), they are the first (M = 128.57) who score higher than the latter (M = 126.72).

As for the prevalence of fears, here is also the 12 -year group that manifests more situations as very feared (M = 14.71), again the 13 -year group being the least fears manifests as average (M = 12,33). The preteen group indicated as an average almost 2 more fearful situations than the group of adolescents (14.25 compared to 12.34). Despite this, if we perform an analysis like the previous one, we do not obtain significant differences for age groups (P> 0.05). This trend is repeated for the prevalence in each of the dimensions, not finding different scores significantly in each factor, except for the dimension "fear of danger and death" (which was again the most prevalent for all ages ), Where were they significant (P < 0,01) entre pre-adolescentes (M = 7,28) y adolescentes (M = 6,03)

Comparing the most common fears in the total sample (qualified situations with “a lot The ages, except for 14 -year -old schoolchildren, whose most feared situation are "the bombings". On the other hand, the 11 -year group is the one that in more situations refers to intense fear (in 50% of the 10 most feared situations), followed by 12 and 10 years schoolchildren. Schoolchildren ages 13 and 14, on the other hand, do not lead any of the 10 most common fears, being the largest in the exhibition the ones that least score in all these situations. The comparison between adolescents and pre-adolescents in these fears can be seen in graph 9.

Performing an intragroup analysis for each age, we appreciate small differences in the 10 most feared situations, although in their order, compared to the total sample. Thus, for the 10 -year group, only a new fear would appear ("death or dead people"), instead of "microbes or serious illness"; In the 11 -year group, the situations "death or dead people" and "lose yourself in an unknown place" would have the same score as "microbes and serious diseases" and "get bad grades", tieding all of them in the ninth position; In the 12 -year group, "death or dead people" would also appear, instead of "being sent to the director of the school"; With regard to the 13 -year group, the item "the fire (burn)" would be, occupying the place of "getting bad notes"; And finally, in the 14 -year group, we observe as new items such as "suspend an exam", "the fire (burn)" and "that the notes give you", would replace "the microbes or serious illness", "Remove bad notes" and "be sent to the director".

In the line of what is indicated, in the groups of pre-adolescents and adolescents there would only be a change in the 10 fears most feared for this last group, where the situation "the fire (burn)" replaces "getting bad notes". In spite of not having found significant differences in the total scores of the FSSC-R or in the dimensions according to age, taking into account both the intensity and the prevalence of fears, performing a more thorough analysis we find 16 situations (20% of the items) in which there are significant differences between pre-adolescents and adolescents in the scores of "much fear" (p<0,05 o p<0,01, según el ítem), siendo sólo en 3 de ellas (“viajar en tren”, “Hacer un examen” e “Ir al médico”) favorables a los adolescentes.

Results: intensity of fears in the sample

First, the Total scores obtained in the FSSC-R questionnaire. After performing the frequency analysis, we get that the average score is 127.88 (DT = 22.09). The Kolgomorov-Smirnov test allowed us to admit that the scores were adjusted to a normal distribution (P> 0.05; Graph 2).

To know the number of schoolchildren who refer a high level of fear in a general way, since in the various versions of the questionnaire there are no cut -off points with which to discriminate the scores of the subjects, and following the choice of Méndez, English, English, Hidalgo, García-Fernández and Quiles (2003) establish as criteria those minors who exceed the average score plus two typical deviations, which would enter this group those schoolchildren who scored above 172 points in the questionnaire.

Taking this into account, we observe that 2.6 % of the sample obtains high scores in the FSSC-R.

Conclusions

The objective of our work has been to analyze the relationship between fears in pre-adolescence and adolescence with self-esteem, at the same time as studying differences according to age and sex in prevalence, intensity and types of fear, in an Alicante school sample (n = 341). To do this, the Spanish version of the Fear Schedule for Children Revice (FSSC-R; Ollendck, 1983; Sandín, 1997) were applied, and the Rosenberg questionnaire (Rosenberg Self-Eastem Scale; Rosenberg, 1965).

The results indicated the existence of higher scores in fears in the female sex, being these significant differences in prevalence of fears and in the intensity of fear in most items, although not in total intensity; The prevalence of greater fears in the pre-adolescent population that in the adolescent, there are no significant differences in the total scores, but in the prevalence of "fears of danger and death"; the greater presence of feared situations, in both sexes and in all age groups, belonging to the dimension "fears of physical hazards and death"; and the negative correlation between fears and self-esteem, being significant for the intensity of fears, prevalence and for most dimensions of the FSSC-R-R.

These results, in general, are congruent with the data that refer to studies, both in Spain and in other countries, on fears in these ages, and invite us to continue investigating the relationship between self -esteem and fears, to be able to corroborate our data.

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