Abstract:
The purposes of this research study were to investigate normal fears of children and adolescents in the Bangkok Metropolis, and to examine them in different dimensions. Participants were 915 school students in Bangkok whose age ranged from 7-18 years. The participants were divided into 3 age-groups: 1) younger children, 2) older children, and 3)adolescents, and were administered "The Fear Survey Schedule for Thai Children and Adolescents."Data were analyzed in 4 dimensions using factor analysis, two-way ANOVA, discriminant analysis, and frequency distribution. Findings were as follows: 1. Five factors of normal fears reported were "Fears of Death and Severe Danger", Fear of Untrustable Persons, Animals, and Things", "Fear of Ghosts or Thrilling or Discomfortable Things", "Fear of Psychic Stress, Social Evaluation, and Failure",and "Fear of Criticism or Punishment and Fear Related to Family". 2. Girls obtained significantly higher fear-intensity scores and fear-prevalence scores than boy did (p< .05).In general, fear intensity and prevalence decreased with age (p<.05). However, no interaction effects between sex and age-group were found. 3. Sex differences in fear content were found and the best discriminating fear stimulus was"Perverted persons or peepers " Girls obtained higher fear scores on this item and the remaining 10 fear stimuli than boys. The type of fear that best discriminated younger children and adolescents was "Getting lost in crowd" Younger children obtained higher fear scores on this item and the remaining 12 fear stimuli than adolescents. 4.The first ranked common fear for the overall sample and the sub-groups of participants were "Lost of organ, physical disability or helplessness" with the exception of the younger-children group who reported "End of the world" as the first ranked common fear.