| Summary: | Children, over the course of development, experience numerous situations
capable of eliciting fear; however, the behaviours which children exhibit in these
situations remain unclear. The investigation presented here pursued the question "how
do young children express fear in a non-painful medical situation where they perceive
threat from physical harm?". It is important to note that this study differentiated between
fear and anxiety, however it did not examine differences between these two emotions.
116 children, between the ages of 12 and 87 months, and their parents participated in the
study. Children's fine-grained behavioural responses, (i.e., facial activity) and broader
behavioural displays (e.g., crying, protective behaviours) were examined during a fearful
situation. The specific threat used to provoke fear was orthopedic cast removal with an
oscillating saw. Few people, including adults, who have had a cast removed would
challenge the notion that the oscillating saw can effectively elicit fear. Facial activity
was measured with the Baby-FACS coding system and global behaviours were assessed
with the Observational Scale of Behavioral Distress. Results demonstrated the existence
of a constellation of facial actions and a group of more global behaviours indicative of
fear in young children. The facial actions and global behaviours identified in the total
sample were examined on a subset of the children who were rated as displaying clinically
significant fear. The same 13 facial actions were found to cluster together in the sample
of children displaying clinically significant fear. Further, global behaviours occurred
with a higher frequency in this sub-sample. Age and cast location were found to predict
children's fear for both classes of behaviour in that younger children and children with
casts on their legs had higher facial action factor scores and OSBD scale scores than
older children or those with arm casts. Finally, facial activity and global behaviours
appeared to be valid measures of fear as they were both correlated to an independent
observer's and the cast technician's ratings of fear. Results are discussed in relation to
current theories of emotional development and implications for clinical applications are
reviewed. === Arts, Faculty of === Psychology, Department of === Graduate
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