Reesa Sorin

James Cook University

Cairns Campus

Telephone: (07) 4042 1116, Email: Reesa.Sorin@jcu.edu.au

The purpose of my research was to discover which emotions, and particularly which fears are experienced by preschool aged children and what is being done both in the home and in the preschool to address these. I used a Qualitative Research approach, which included written and verbal surveys, observations and a reflective journal. I was a non-participant observer in four early childhood venues for a six month period of time in 1999. Based on Ollendick's (1983) Fear Survey Schedule for Children-Revised and Spence's (1997) Childhood Concerns Survey, I developed surveys for parents, caregivers and children. These participant groups were asked which emotions and fears children experience, how children display fear and how the fears are addressed by parents and caregivers.

The early childhood venues I chose for my research were: a private preschool, a long day care centre, a preschool attached to a public school, and a multifunctional Aboriginal Children's service. I began by interviewing 45 children, 46 parents and 21 caregivers from the four venues, Braddock Preschool, Chelsea Long Day Care Centre, Valley Preschool and Moorobool Children's Centre. Their privacy was protected by referring to the venues and the people themselves by pseudonyms only. I gave them information about the study before they agreed to participate and kept them informed throughout and following data collection. Their participation was voluntary and they were free to withdraw from the research at any time. This was followed by observation in the centres and implementation of various emotion activities, such as puzzles, posters and emotion lotto. Throughout the data collection I kept a reflective journal. Data analysis is currently in progress in its final stages.

This paper begins with a theoretical overview of emotion, focusing on fear and its link to the education system. This is followed by findings from my research, which include that there are eight kinds of fear, but caregivers may not be aware of the entire spectrum and that some of the ways adults respond to children's fears could actually be invalidating or adding to the fear.

The definition and theory of emotion have been a focus of debate for the past two centuries, with a number of different paradigms of emotion evolving from it. "Historically this term has proven utterly refractory to definitional efforts; probably no other term in psychology shares its nondefinability with its frequency of use" (Reber, 1985). What most theorists do agree upon, is that emotion has psychological, biological and behavioural components. Goleman (1995) defines emotion as "a feeling and its distinctive thoughts, psychological and biological states, and a range of propensities to act" (p. 289). The major paradigms of emotion that have developed from this debate are: Biosocial Theory, Cognitive Theory, Psychoanalytic Theory, Constructivism and Functionalist Theory.

With Darwin's 1872 publication of The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (New York: Philosophical Library), Biosocial Theory had its beginnings. Darwin's notion of the evolution of the species, states that emotions began as survival and communication behaviours and over time became habitual (1965). For example, when we cower and become motionless with fear, it stems from the days when people acted this way to protect themselves from dangerous predators. Separation Anxiety (Bowlby, 1971, 1973) stems from the real danger in the past of being separated from the primary attachment figure. Biosocial Theory also includes Physiological Theory, which sees emotion as either motivated or displayed by physiological or neurological processes (Ledoux, 1998); and Behaviourism, which argues that emotions can be manipulated through conditioning (Watson, 1970).

Cognitive Theory sees emotion as developing alongside cognition, but dependent on cognition rather than a structure in its own right (Piaget, 1981). Cognitive Theory argues that emotions are mediated by and can be interpreted or changed through cognitive appraisal, such as verbalising, reasoning and rationalising (Strongman, 1986). Social Learning Theory, a branch of Cognitive Theory, asserts that emotions not only occur through physical and cognitive development, but also through observation, experience and interaction with the social world (Bandura, 1986 in Plutchik and Kellerman, 1990). Thus, others become models for the child's development of both emotional understanding and emotional display.

Psychoanalytic Theory borrows from both Biosocial Theory and Cognitive Theory, viewing emotion as innate stores of instinctive knowledge that shape the child's development (Sulloway, 1979). Conflicts occur when a child's experiences are in contradiction to his/her evolutionary pattern (Oatley and Jenkins, 1996).

Constructivism views emotion as constituted by discourse. Relying heavily on language (Bamberg, 1997; Lutz and Abu-Lughod, 1990), emotion is based on appraisal, behaviour and feedback from behaviour (Averill, 1982). Bruner saw the culture and the school as playing a large part in the emotion socialisation of the child.

In Functionalist Theory, emotions are viewed as central, adaptive forces of human activity (Berk, 1997) and can be defined by the mental states that cause them and the effects they have on behaviour (Blackburn, 1994). Encompassing most other approaches to emotion, Lazarus and Lazarus contend that emotions are the products of behaviour, sensation, imagery, cognition, biological inputs and the interpersonal context (in Pluthcik and Kellerman, 1990b).

While fear is mainly categorised as a negative emotion, fear can have positive effects, such as motivating people to act. Darwin (1872) noted that extreme fear acts as a stimulant, driving people's strength and power.

Fear also has adaptive qualities, motivating people to bond together for protection. Izard and Kobak note that for protection, young children withdraw from the feared object and seek out attachment figures (in Garber and Dodge, 1991).

Cognitive processes such as memory, perception and problem-solving ability may be affected by fear (Izard, 1977; Strongman, 1987). Effects can be both negative, by arresting information processing, or positive, by energising cognitive performance (Dodge in Garber and Dodge, 1991; Goleman, 1995).

Behaviour, involving both cognitive choices and physiological changes, can be limited greatly by fear. Fear reduces thoughts, perceptions and choices of action, as people are compelled to respond only to the perceived threat of (Izard, 1991; Wilder in Mackie and Hamilton, 1993, p. 87). Physiological changes through fear can disrupt performance, leading people to use simpler and less demanding strategies (Mackie and Hamilton, 1993, p. 18).

But fear can also have a more serious impact on a child's functioning.

Menzies and Clarke (1995, in Kindt, Bierman and Brosschot, 1997) note that phobias in adults are linked to the failure to resolve their childhood fear.

The sense of self, so important to socio-emotional development, can be adversely affected by fear. When guilt, shame or demeaning are consequences of fear, it can threaten children's self-esteem and expectations for future outcomes (Dodge in Garber and Dodge, 1991; Lazarus, 1991).

When children are afraid, they are increasingly likely to interpret the intentions of others as malicious and unwarranted (Dodge in Garber and Dodge, 1991) and to have less positive interactions with peers (Izard and Kobak in Garber and Dodge, 1991). Dodge found that when responses are sped up due to fear, children tended to over-attribute their peers' intentions as hostile (Dodge in Garber and Dodge, 1991, p. 173).

Emotion regulation can often determine the success of social interactions (Eisenberg and Fabes, 1995).

As children mature, their ability to regulate emotions also becomes an important factor in the way they are judged socially competent by others (Eisenberg and Fabes, 1995, p.203). Eisenberg, Fabes, Shepard, Murphy, Guthrie, Jones, Friedman, Poulin and Maszk (1997) showed that high quality social functioning in older children was related to understanding and regulating emotion in the preschool years. Dunn (1995) added that children's positive perception of their peer experiences, of mixed emotions, and of moral sensibility are related to early emotion understanding.

According to Dunlop (1984), schools are not picking up on this responsibility, leaving the understanding of fear and other emotions to the children themselves and to chance. Goleman (1995) alerts us to the fact that family life no longer guarantees children knowledge of emotional or social competence. Much of this responsibility has been placed on the schools, as all children attend school. This makes the schooling of emotions and important mandate for teachers, who must then go beyond traditional education to involve parents and other community members in programs to develop emotional literacy in children.

In general caregivers' reported children's fears much less frequently than parents or children themselves. Caregivers' most commonly reported fear, fear of preschool, was only mentioned by fifty-nine percent of caregivers, and their next most reported fear, fear of being teased, by thirty-nine percent. Caregivers' reporting of children's fears dropped dramatically, from fifty-nine percent for the most reported fear to two percent for the least reported fear. On the whole, caregivers seemed to be the group that were least aware of children's fears.

To assist caregivers' awareness of children's fears, Table 4 shows the fear categories, items in each category, and how these items were reported by parents and children. The reporting of these items by parents and children is compared with the reporting of these items by caregivers.

The only item reported in similar numbers by caregivers and by other participants was fear of preschool. Fear of separating from a parent and entering into new situations, has been noted by many researchers as a common fear of toddlers and preschoolers (Bowlby, 1973; Gebeke, 1994; Herzog, 1996; Sarafino, 1986). Separation from parents often occurs when a child is left at preschool. Other items are much less visible to caregivers, although reports of their existence by parents and children cannot be ignored.

As Hayley, a parent at Braddock Preschool noted,

While on the one hand Sally is telling Wade not to be afraid, she is also giving him two other messages: firstly that his fear is not valid; that he should not be afraid, and secondly that while he is safe with her, he may not be safe when she is not there. Wade's behaviour of refusing to leave Sally when she is in the preschool setting, and continuing to stay close by her at home, could indicate that he is receiving her message and feels safe only in her company. His continued fear behaviour could be partly the result of his fears not being validated by his mother.

Invalidating children's fears seemed to be the message from some parents, who reported they told their children: "There's nothing to be afraid of." For example, Matthew has a fear of the house being robbed and someone stealing the baby. In her frustration and anger with his ongoing fear, Sue Ellen, Matthew's mother, tells him "look, no one's gonna rob our house. It's not going to happen, you'll be alright." Matthew's fears continue, possibly through it continuing to be invalidated by his mother. Minimising fear can disadvantage the child "by making the child see fear as only an emergency response, and the child may come to avoid any situation where any degree of fear is anticipated" (Izard, 1991, p. 304).

Other parents who told their children not to be afraid, added that they would explain the situation to the child. Jaye, Brandon's mother, said that she would,

While metaphors were both reported by some parents and encouraged in the literature (Dunlop, 1984), I would question their impact on young children. When Christa tells Keeran and Toby that thunder is "God playing ten-pin bowling", I wonder whether that metaphor could develop a fear in children of bowling and possibly of God. May's more gentle metaphor of thunder being "like clouds clapping together" may have been easier for Aidan to understand, and may have helped him to deal with his fear.

Fear should not be used to control a child (Berger and Thompson, 1994; Izard, 1991). Yet often it is used in this way by parents. Karen, a caregiver at Moorobool Children's Centre, explained that Aboriginal children are taught in the home "not to be afraid of their fear...It's just in their culture." She described her situation at home with her children, saying:

While Karen's intentions are good and her words are justified in the fact that the Aboriginal culture encourages children to accept fear, the element of controlling children through fear is unmistakable. In other cultures and families, "Gunje" takes the form of the Bogey Man, or other characters that parents claim will "get" the child for misbehaviour. According to Berger and Thompson (1994) adults must "Not try to scare the preschooler into good behaviour with fantasy untruths" (p. 271).

Laura: Well, give him a cuddle. [To Kevin: Give you a cuddle?]

Kevin: I didn't cry.

Kevin (crying): "I want mummy and daddy."

Kevin: "I want daddy and mummy."

Melissa persevered and was eventually able to distract Kevin. However, his separation fear persisted during my time at Braddock Preschool. This could indicate that the messages Kevin was receiving from his mother were encouraging his fear rather than helping him to understand and deal with it.

Parents who validated their children's fears and explained situations reported more success and less anger towards their children. Ann, a parent at Valley Preschool, described her response to Avral's fears as:

However, Ann as parent is making the judgment for Avral about whether her fear is justified, rather than working with the child to decide. Other parents gave children more of an opportunity to make judgments about fears themselves. Maggie reported:

Including children in assessing and evaluating their fears helps them to take responsibility for their own emotion understanding and expression. It shows acceptance of the fear and support for the child's growing emotion understanding (Arthur et al, 1999).

Empathy, putting yourself in the child's position, is another way of validating the child's fear. Leona, a parent at Braddock Preschool, said she empathises with Cindy's fear and tells her "it's okay to experience her emotion."

Modelling, where the parent acts non-fearful, may be successful in some situations (Walden in Garber and Dodge, 1991), but can also be a way of negating or invalidating the child's fear. Maggie reported that she and her husband have "always tried to not exhibit any fear ourselves, in whatever situation it is. It's a bit hard sometimes." There are some situations that cause all of us to be afraid, and this is a message that should be conveyed to children. Parents who try not to show fear may be invalidating the emotion in much the same way as parents who tell children not to be afraid. "The child's parents or the surrounding culture will often provide a gloss on a particular situation, and that gloss will effectively teach the child what to feel" (Saarni and Harris, 1991, p., 16). Saarni and Harris (1991) add that the outward display of emotion can be different from the underlying effect, but the young child may not pick up this discrepancy. Instead they could read the parents fearlessness in the face of spiders or snakes as a signal that these creatures are not to be feared. It is far better that adults model fear responses such as backing away from spiders or snakes and acknowledging their fear of these creatures due to the danger of being bitten by either one.

By validating children's fears, adults are in a better position to utilise other techniques to help them to deal with their fears. Jody, a parent at Braddock Preschool, described her initial response to Kyle's fears as "a cuddle and then an explanation why it's okay to be afraid." However, from there Jody says she tells Kyle that while it's okay to be afraid, "there's no real need to...it can't get you or it won't hurt you or mummy's got hold of you." Here Jody is making the decision that Kyle should not be afraid because she is offering him safety. So while she has begun the process toward independent emotion understanding, she intervenes by making appraisals of the situation on behalf of Kyle, rather than encouraging him to construct his own understandings of the situation.

Norman, a parent at Braddock Preschool, reported that he offers Lewis reassurance and physical affection, but then takes him back to the environment "to show that it's not dangerous and that I will look after him and try and get him reacquainted so he feels safe in there." This is a form of desensitisation within the Behaviourist approach (Watson, 1970). While using a combination of strategies, Norman is still taking responsibility for Lewis' emotion. He is appraising the situation as safe and taking responsibility for Lewis' safety. Like Jody, Norman could be encouraging Lewis to make his own judgements about the situation and to begin to take responsibility for his own well-being in the situation. However, going back to a fearful situation is in itself a big step for a young child, and knowing that the parent is there as support is helpful to the young child.

Other parents took action by turning on the lights in a dark room, or taking the child outside during a storm. Renee, a parent at Valley Preschool, said that when Adam demonstrates a fear of the dark, she has "gone back into the room with him to turn the light on and show him there's nothing there." Rather than Renee showing Adam that nothing is there, she could look around with him and allow him to discover that there is nothing there, to help him to address and understand his fears. When Tim was afraid of thunder, Lyn, a parent at Moorobool Children's Centre, said she desensitised him by taking him outside, holding him and saying, "that's not going to hurt you, especially when you're inside the house." Besides passing a judgment on his fear ("that's not going to hurt you), Lyn qualified her judgment with "especially when you're inside the house." What this could mean to Tim is that every time there is a thunderstorm, he is only safe indoors; if he is outdoors at those times, he may still be in danger.

A form of invalidating a child's fear reported by caregivers was the action of redirecting the child. Some caregivers suggested redirecting fearful children to other activities, which could be a way of temporarily repressing the fear or permanently invalidating it. In Psychoanalytic Theory repression of unresolved emotions in early childhood is a source of anxiety and conflict later in life (Santrock, 1994).

Caregivers may also be invalidating some emotions and emotion expression and making other emotions more appropriate to experience and display. For example, happiness, considered a positive emotion, is an emotion caregivers encourage in children. Ida, a caregiver at Moorobool Children's Centre noted:

Not only is Ida encouraging happiness, not as a passing emotion but as a permanent emotion, but she is invalidating the sadness another child feels by attempting to get the sad child to copy the happy child's emotion. This refers to Social Learning Theory, where children are said to learn through observation and experience with others (Bandura, 1986 in Plutchik and Kellerman, 1990). While her intentions are altruistic, she is nonetheless invalidating an emotion, sadness, which she considers unacceptable for the child to experience.

Happiness, surprise, interest and excitement are all emotions that caregivers said they would encourage in children. But sadness, disgust, anger and fear are emotions considered by many to be negative or undesirable. Ida's description above of trying to get the sad child to copy the happy child is an example of how sadness is an emotion often invalidated. Other caregivers said they would try to change sadness to happiness or reassure children that everything is okay. Everything is not okay, or the child would not be experiencing the sadness, so this is another way to invalidate the feeling. Other caregivers spoke of engaging the sad child in discussion about the emotion, which is a way of validating the child's emotion. Redirecting the child to activities or to discussion about what makes the child's which may also be subtle ways of invalidating the feeling which provide temporary relief but do not facilitate the child's overall understanding of the emotion.

Another way to validate a child's emotion is to help a child to verbalise the emotion and to suggest ways the child can use to express the emotion. I recorded an incident at Braddock Preschool that shows this. Ariel was sitting on the floor of the home corner. Her facial expression was one of sadness. She told me that no one would play with her. I said that I would play with her. We went to the puzzle table together and did an emotion puzzle. I asked her how she felt when no one would play with her. She said she didn't know. I offered her words - "sad, angry, afraid?" She said "no." I offered her "lonely" and she nodded.

Hayley, a parent at Braddock Preschool, had also expressed her concern that when a child is feeling sad because he or she has no one to play with, it may be difficult for the child to express or communicate the feeling. This is where caregivers can help by validating the feeling and offering the child ways to express it.

Disgust is an emotion that many caregivers said they would try to change. Speaking in reference to a disgust of certain foods, Simone, a caregiver at Chelsea Long Day Care Centre, said she would tell children,

Other caregivers also said they would try to get children to taste the food. But some caregivers disagreed, saying they would not force a child to eat something that disgusted them. Melinda, a caregiver at Moorobool Children's Centre, said that if children are disgusted by some foods she gives them the choice of rejecting the food, rather than encouraging them to taste a food. Melissa, a caregiver at Braddock Preschool, said her response would be to listen to the child's expression of his/her feeling.

Both caregivers' responses are validating the emotion of disgust, offering support through listening and empowering children through allowing them to make their own choices.

Anger is an emotion that seems to have gained more acceptance than other "negative" emotions. The incident I recorded in the outdoor climbing area of Braddock Preschool went without notice by caregivers and other children alike. A group of children were arguing about who would be first to climb the hill. Aron made a face and yelled, "I'm angry and I'm not playing." He gritted his teeth, "grrrrr." He walked away in tears, repeating, "I'm angry and I'm not playing."

When responding to anger, caregivers tend to draw upon their teaching strategies to validate or invalidate the emotion. Mikala, a caregiver at Moorobool Children's Centre, said:

If the child's reason for being angry is acceptable to Mikala, she will validate it by discussion with the child. However, if the reason is considered unacceptable, Mikala notes she invalidates the feeling, telling the child "that's silly." From an adult's perspective, the reason may sound silly, but from the child's perspective it is a very real concern and should be validated as such and dealt with in a similar manner to anger for a reason the caregiver finds acceptable.

Kelly, a caregiver at Chelsea Long Day Care Centre, reported that she validates the feeling of anger, but teaches children acceptable ways of expressing anger.

Kelly's response is a clear example of how caregivers can validate the emotion, thus helping children to understand it, without necessarily validating the emotion expression. By validating the emotion, Kelly is empowering children to own their emotions and to begin to reflect upon appropriate ways to express the emotion. However, she is telling them what is appropriate, rather than facilitating their choices through discussion and modelling.

In comparing caregivers' responses to fear and to other emotions, fear may be considered an emotion that is not as validated as other emotions. Caregivers reported physical responses more for fear than for other emotions. When children are afraid, many caregivers said they use a physical response, such as a hug or physical proximity, and comfort which, as discussed previously, has both a physical and a verbal component. But the only other emotions to which caregivers said they respond physically were sadness and one caregiver also said that she would respond with hugs to happiness. Comfort was named exclusively as a response to fear, and not even sadness elicited this response from caregivers, although other words such as reassurance and cuddles, when reported together, might imply a response of comfort to sadness. But in most cases, teaching strategies were reported more for other emotions other than fear.

By validating children's emotions, adults are helping children to understand them. However, as we belong to a culture that accepts some forms of emotion expression and rejects other forms, a caregiver's job involves guiding children to appropriate emotion expression. We need to examine and possibly broaden our definitions of what is appropriate emotion expression and to encourage children to use a variety of ways to express their emotions that are empowering to them and not harmful to others.

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