Mother knows best: effects of maternal modelling on the acquisition of fear and avoidance behaviour in toddlers

The present study was conducted to investigate the influence of parental modelling on the acquisition of fear and avoidance towards novel, fear-relevant stimuli in a sample of 30 toddlers. The toddlers were shown a rubber snake and spider, which were alternately paired with either negative or positi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Behaviour research and therapy 2002-03, Vol.40 (3), p.279-287
Main Authors: Gerull, Friederike C, Rapee, Ronald M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aetiology
Anxiety
Anxiety - etiology
Anxiety - psychology
Anxiety disorders
Avoidance Learning
Babies
Behavior
Biological and medical sciences
Child clinical studies
Facial Expression
Fear & phobias
Fear - psychology
Female
Humans
Infant
Infants
Male
Medical sciences
Modelling
Mothers
Mothers - psychology
Parents & parenting
Psychology, Child
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Social referencing
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Summary:The present study was conducted to investigate the influence of parental modelling on the acquisition of fear and avoidance towards novel, fear-relevant stimuli in a sample of 30 toddlers. The toddlers were shown a rubber snake and spider, which were alternately paired with either negative or positive facial expressions by their mothers. Both stimuli were presented again after a 1- and a 10-min delay, while mothers maintained a neutral expression. The children showed greater fear expressions and avoidance of the stimuli following negative reactions from their mothers. This was true for both genders although the degree of modelled avoidance was greater in girls than in boys. The strong observational learning results are consistent with views that modelling constitutes a mechanism by which fear may be acquired early in life.
ISSN:0005-7967
1873-622X
DOI:10.1016/S0005-7967(01)00013-4