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The effects of verbal information on children's fear beliefs about social situations

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posted on 2023-06-15, 14:43 authored by Joanne Lawson, Robin BanerjeeRobin Banerjee, Andy FieldAndy Field
Two experiments explored the role of verbal information in changing children’s fearrelated beliefs about social situations. In Experiment 1, 118 6- to 8- and 12- to 13-year-olds heard positive, negative, or no information about individuals’ experiences of three social situations. Fear beliefs regarding each situation were assessed before and after this manipulation. Verbal information had no significant influence on children’s fear beliefs. In Experiment 2, the same paradigm was used with 80 12- to 13-year-olds, but the information took the form of multiple attitude statements about the situations expressed by groups of peers, older children, or adults. An affective priming task of implicit attitudes was used to complement the explicit questions about fear beliefs. Negative information influenced both explicit and implicit fear beliefs. The source of information and the child’s own social anxiety did not moderate these effects. Implications for our understanding of the socialisation of childhood fears are discussed.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Behaviour Research and Therapy

ISSN

0005-7967

Publisher

Elsevier

Issue

1

Volume

45

Page range

21-37

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2014-08-07

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2014-08-07

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2014-08-07

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