Fears in visually-impaired and normally-sighted youths

doi:10.1016/0005-7967(85)90017-8

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Volume 23, Issue 3, 1985, Pages 375-378

https://doi.org/10.1016/0005-7967(85)90017-8 Get rights and content

Abstract

The present study examined the level and structure of fear in visually-impaired and normally-sighted youths. A total of 176 youths were examined: 70 visually-impaired and 106 normally-sighted youths. All youths were administered the Revised Fear Survey Schedule for Children. Results indicated that visually-impaired youths evinced quantitative and qualitative differences in their selfreported fears. Not only did they report greater levels of fear, perhaps, more importantly, they also reported qualitatively different fears. Results are discussed in terms of the antecedent and consequent factors associated with such differences.

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There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (28)

Childhood and adolescent psychologic development
2003, Pediatric Clinics of North America
Fears of youth with mental retardation: Psychometric evaluation of the Fear Survey Schedule for Children-II (FSSC-II)
1996, Research in Developmental Disabilities
The nature and development of normal fear, although widely researched within the general population, has been seriously neglected for individuals with mental retardation. The present study involves the psychometric evaluation of the Fear Survey Schedule for Children-II with two samples: 187 children and adolescents with mental retardation and 372 intellectually average students. The schedule was demonstrated to have sound psychometric properties for both samples including good internal consistency and high retest reliability. Sound validity indices were determined by examining the relationships of fear scores with state, trait, and manifest anxiety scores. Comparison of the two samples yielded significant differences. In particular, students with mental retardation were found to score significantly higher than the comparison sample. In contrast to the agerelated decrease in fear found for students of average intelligence, those with mental retardation did not demonstrate a decrease in self-reported fear with age. Gender differences were consistent across both samples with females reporting higher levels of fearfulness and a greater number of fears than males.
Normal fear in people with a physical or intellectual disability
1996, Clinical Psychology Review
Normal fear constitutes an adaptive reaction to a real or imagined threat and is an integral part of development. The developmental pattern of normal fear has significant clinical importance, particularly in relation to establishing norms of fearfulness against which excessive or “phobic” fears can be identified. In contrast to people without a disability, only limited research has been carried out with people who have hearing, visual, physical, intellectual, and health impairments. Nonetheless, the research that has been done shows that, as with nondisabled people, those with disabilities are most likely to fear situations and stimuli which pose survival danger. Also consistent with the nondisabled population, females demonstrate higher fear levels than males. However, people with disabilities generally demonstrate a wider variety and more intense fears, albeit, of a developmentally less mature nature than people without disabilities. It has not been determined whether these differences are mostly the result of biological factors, social factors, or a combination of both. These are questions for future research.
Fears in hearing-impaired and normally hearing children and adolescents
1989, Behaviour Research and Therapy
In this study the Revised Fear Survey Schedule for Children was administered to 138 hearing-impaired and 134 normally hearing youths. Although both groups expressed fear of potentially dangerous stimuli, significant differences in responding were evident towards other kinds of stimuli. Whereas hearing children were more fearful of failure and criticism, the hearing-impaired children were more afraid of the unknown, injury and small animals. Girls reported significantly greater levels of fear than boys thus confirming a well established research finding. Further, significant interactions were found between hearing status and gender. In contrast to previous findings, age was not related to self-reports of fear.
Posttraumatic stress disorder and blindness
1988, Comprehensive Psychiatry
Fears in visually impaired and normally sighted children and adolescents
1990, Journal of School Psychology
The Revised Fear Survey Schedule for Children was administered to 129 visually impaired and 129 normally sighted children. All of the subjects were attending schools in Australia. We found that visually impaired and normally sighted children did not significantly differ on overall level of fearfulness, although the sighted children expressed a greater level of fear on two factors. These findings are inconsistent with those of a similar study reported on U.S. children and youth. However, it was noted that the totally blind children, of which there were only a small number in that sample, reported a higher level of fear than sighted children. Consistent with previous research findings, girls reported greater fear levels than boys. There was no significant relationship between age and self-reported fear.

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Case histories and shorter communicationsFears in visually-impaired and normally-sighted youths

Abstract

Behav. Res. Ther.

Behav. Res. Ther.

Childhood fears in developmental perspective

Insight from the Blind: Comparative Studies of Blind and Sighted Infants

The self-concept of physically handicapped children and their non-handicapped siblings: an empirical investigation

J. Child Psychol. Psychiat.

Assessing general psychopathology in visually handicapped children

Psychopathology in the Mentally Retarded

Case histories and shorter communications
Fears in visually-impaired and normally-sighted youths