title: Adaptation of a paradigm for examining the development of fear beliefs through the verbal information pathway in preschool-age children.
abstract: Verbal threat information has been shown to induce fear beliefs in school-age children (i.e. 6-12 years; for a review see Muris & Field, 2010). The current study adapted an existing paradigm (Field & Lawson, 2003) to examine the impact of verbal threat information on self-report and behavioral measures of fear in preschool-age children. Thirty children (aged 3-5) were provided with threat, positive, or no information about three novel Australian marsupials. There was a significant increase in fear belief for the animal associated with threat information compared to the animal associated with positive or no information. Verbal threat information did not impact behavioral avoidance in the complete sample; however, findings from an exploratory subgroup analysis excluding three-year-olds indicated that children demonstrated significant behavioral avoidance for the threat condition compared to the positive condition. These findings provide additional support for Rachman's theory of fear acquisition (1977, 1991) and suggest this paradigm may be used to examine the age at which verbal threat information becomes a relevant mode of fear acquisition for young children.
authors: Skidmore College, 815 North Broadway, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866, USA; McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School, 115 Mill Street, Mail Stop 113, Belmont, MA 02478, USA. Electronic address: lrifkin@skidmore.edu.
authors: Lara S
authors: LS
authors: Rifkin
authors: Skidmore College, 815 North Broadway, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866, USA. Electronic address: cschofie@skidmore.edu.
authors: Casey A
authors: CA
authors: Schofield
authors: McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School, 115 Mill Street, Mail Stop 113, Belmont, MA 02478, USA. Electronic address: cbeard@mclean.harvard.edu.
authors: Courtney
authors: C
authors: Beard
authors: Whitman College, 345 Boyer Ave, Walla Walla, WA 99362, USA. Electronic address: armstrtr@whitman.edu.
authors: Thomas
authors: T
authors: Armstrong
mesh_terms: D001362:Avoidance Learning; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D057566:Self Report; D014705:Verbal Behavior
keywords: Children; Fear; Threat; Verbal information