RESEARCH REPORT NO. 6                            "Thai Children's Fears"                                                by                                  Somporn Buatong (1966)     This study was an investigation of the fears existing in first grade school children and of the factors thatinfluenced the development as well as the overcoming of fears. The study was in fact  a part of the Institute'slong-term research project concerning the social influences on the development of children. The inclusion ofthe "Fear Study" in the main project was due to the fact that knowledge about  emotional development of Thaichildren was  seriously inadequate. Parents and teachers, in rearing and educating children, had to relyheavily upon past experience and casual observations. Some,however,made use of data produced byWestern countries.But most of these  data were,as one might very well assume, impractical and notapplicable, for cultural differences were so great . For this reason it was imperative that facts concerningemotional development of Thai children relevant to their  own cultural settings be established thoughsystematic research. In attemping  research in this area , however, one had the difficult task of trying to decidewhat should be studied first, for there were a great variety  of choices. Fear was chosen, aside from it'ssignificance in human life, mainly on the basic of the investigator's interest. The Objectives of the Study         The objectives of this study were four-fold :                 1. To investigate kind of fears that existed in children.                 2. To investigate factors that contributed to the development of fears.                 3. To study children's behavioral patterns in attemping to overcome fears.                 4. To investigate factors that contributed to the techniques of overcoming  fears. Methology         Subjects.     Since this study was one aspect of the Institute's long-term project, the sample used wasthe same group of childdren chosen for the main project. This sample consisted of 165 first grade children, 65boys and 70 girls, in three different elementary schools. These schools were all village schools, each locatedin one of the following parts of the country : central, northeastern, and northern. The schools were carefullyselected so that each would be a typical school for the part of the country sampled. The children who thusparrticipated in the study ranged in age from 7 to 8 years, and were generally representative of children of thesame age level from the three different geographic areas. The fact that all of these children were raised in arural area made the sample even more typical of Thai children in general.           Procedure.    Due to children's low ability in reading and writing, the required data were obtained trough aseries of  interviews with individial children. The interview schedule  consisted of nineteen questions. The first nine questions were concerned with the kinds of fears exhibited by children ; the remaining items deal with thefactors that contributed to the development of , and to the techniques of overcoming, fears. The total  interviewperiod for each child required about one hours. However, the interview session was divided into segments,with 5 - 10 minute rest intervals, in the hope that more reliable information would be obtained.       Treatment of Data.     The responses given by  children  were tabulated to establish frequencies. Basedupon these responses, categories were derived. Two staff members and three graduate students thenindepdently classified the responses according to these categories. The agreement among them insured thereliability of data classification. Frequency of responses in each of the categories was then converted intoperceptages.  Critical comparisons were made to see the diffference or similarity in responses given by the three group  of children. Findings of  this study also were compared with Phanuphan's study, * which wascaried  out in on school in Bangkok. Hence, the differences in responses  given by rural and urban childrenwere made apparent. Finding 1. Kinds of Fears Exhibited  by Children.   Fears as reported by children could be cateegorized into fourgeneral kinds :         a. Fears of animals ; e.g. : dogs, snakes,cows ;         b. Fears of nature ; e.g. : darkness, the sun, coldness ;         c. Fears of Supernatural beings ; e.g. : ghosts;         d. Fears of theatening situations; e.g. : strangers, apprehensions over  bodily injury, dangers of traffic.         Children in rural areas reported the when at home or outside of the home during the day, they feared ofanimals  more than anythin  else. It was apparent, however,  that many fears of animals that were mentionedreflected a lackk of understanding on the paart of children. Fears of small birds, ants,and many kinds of petsseemed to be quiite unreasonable for children at this age. When comparing  the fears of rural children withthose reported by children in Bangkok, the influence of the environment upon children's fears was founddecisive. Urban children experienced primarily fellings of threat of bodily injury through acts of persons andthrough traffic accidents, when they were at home and outside of the home, respectively.         No difference was found between rural and urban children’s responses referring to fears experiencenwhen in school. Apprehension over punishment from their teacher appeared to be the most distinct feeling inall children from their teacher appeared to be the most distinct felliing in all childreen. There migth be manyreasons for children being afraid of the teacher : for example, the customary practice of children having toobey adults, the formal relationshilp between tteachers and pupils, and poor teaching practices migth very wellcontribute to the fear reaction. this evidence that children were apprehensive about being punished by theteacher was as important, finding, for the intense feeling of fear of their own teacher could severely handicaptheir learning in school as well as the developmant of their personality as a whole. The passive charactor ofThai students in general might originate from this experience of fear in the first few years of school.         With respect to fears experienced at night, ghosts were the most frequently mentioned fearss of allchildren. It is interesting yo note that children seemed to know many kinds of ghosts, although they had neverseen one in their lifetime. They also indicated that among all the fears that they knew in this world, fear ofghosts was the most intense one. This was not surprising, for the fear of ghosts in also exhibited by manyadults. there are in fact quite a few customary practices in Thai society which involve the worship or placationof ghosts and other spirits. 2. Factors Influencing the Origin of Childreen’s Fears.    Influences that contributed to the developmant oftears in children could be classified under three headings : children could be classified under three headings :children’s past experience, informatioon obtained from other persons, and information received from somekind of mass media. The most frequently mentioned examples were found to belong to the second category;and the persons from whom children learned their feelings of fears appeared to be their ownprents. Pastexperience was the second most frequently mentioned determinant of fear development. The influence ofmass media (e.g. movies) was reported by some urban children. 3. Techniques of Overcoming Fears.    Three techniques of overcoming fears were found to the commonlyutilized by children : fleeing, attacking, and adjusting to the situation. While most children used fleeing or themoving - away technique when experiencing feared objects or situations, only a few reported that theyattacked the object of their fear. An adjusting technique was used by some in an attempt to avoid fearedevents.Some children, for example, would try to please their parents when experiencing apprehension overpunishment. This manner of fleeing technique. It was found to be utilized, however, only by a few choldrenwhose abilities were rather high. 4. Factors Contribuing to Techniques of Overcoming Fears.  The most common origin of children's learningof ways to overcome fears was again found to be their own parents. In other words, children learnedtechniques of overcoming fears by imitating parent's behaviors or by seeking information from their parents.Since the fleeing technique was found to the utilized most frequently, it was apparent that parents were not ofmuch help to their children in this respect. The fleeing technique, of course, proved to be aneffective means ofdealing with many kinds of fears. But it was evident from children's that the fleeing technique was usedregardless of the nature of fears. Cchildren did not seem to receive help from their parents in  developingunderstanding about  the things or situations that the feared. This observation was supported by the alreaddy-mentioned fact that there were many unreasonable fears still existing in children at this age. Final Remarks.         Some evidence has been found in this study which seems to indicate the ignorance of parents in regardto the effects of fears on children’s personality. Children exhibited a great variety of fears,many of whichseemed to bbe rather unreasonable. Parents were found to be responsible for the origin of most of thesefears.Children did not seem to possess proper skills and abilities in coping with their fears. All of this evidencestrongly indicates that children seriously  lacked adequate knowledge and understanding concerning thenature of their apprehensions.         The results collectively raise many serious questions. Is it likely that parents were not only unaware of theeffects of fears on children’s growth, but also consciously utilized fears as a means to regulate children’sbehaviors. Is it possible from this study of conclude that parents do not possess adequate knowledge andunderstanding in regard to the nature of children’s emotional development in general. There seems to be anurgent need that information on proper child rearing practices as well as simple knowledge on childdevelopment be distributed to parents in some way.                              SWUHOMEPAGEBack to Behavioral Science Research Institute