The Assessment and Treatment of Children’s Fears

Abstract

While fear is a necessary and often "healthy" response to a wide variety of situations, at times it can become so debilitating as to be maladaptive. Careful distinctions involving terms such as fear, phobia, and anxiety are not always made. However, there seems to be some general consensus that fear connotes a differentiated response to a specific object or situation. Anxiety is a more diffuse, less focused response, perhaps best described as apprehension without apparent cause. A phobia is a special form of fear that (1) is out of proportion to the demands of the situation, (2) cannot be explained or reasoned away, (3) is beyond voluntary control, and (4) leads to avoidance of the feared situation (Marks, 1969).