COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Boys fear snakes, monsters and scary theme park rides more often than girls do, while girls fear thunder storms and the dark more than boys, according to a new study.
Ohio State University researchers examined the fears and anxieties of 86 children 8 to 12 years old and found that the boys harbored fears related to animals, supernatural phenomena and safety, while the girls tended to fear natural phenomena. This seems to counteract the stereotype of what girls are typically afraid of.
The researchers evaluated the children in several ways. They conducted individual interviews, had the children fill out questionnaires and asked each child to draw a picture of a human figure.
The researchers looked at the drawings for any of 38 specific characteristics -- called emotional indicators -- that could reflect a child's anxiety, concerns and attitude. The more prevalent the indicators, the higher the anxiety level should be.
Some of the emotional indicators in the pictures include shading of the body or limbs; omitting prominent body parts; crossed eyes; and a tiny or extremely large head.
"Because children may not have the words to express that they're afraid or worried, characteristics appearing in human-figure drawings can reveal some forms of serious anxiety," said Nancy Ryan-Wenger, professor of community, parent-child and psychiatric nursing at Ohio State.
Ryan-Wenger worked with Mary Carroll, who conducted the study as a master's thesis at Ohio State. She is now a pediatric nurse practitioner at the Pediatric Group in Troy, Ohio. The study appears in a recent issue of the Journal of Pediatric Health Care.
The 43 girls and 43 boys participating in the study filled out a questionnaire that measured anxiety traits in children. Ryan-Wenger and Carroll examined fear with the interview question "Most people are afraid of something. What are you afraid of?" Finally, each child was asked to draw "a person -- a whole person."
During the interviews, each subject reported zero to six fears, with a total of 177 fears described. Boys reported more safety- and animal-related fears (74 and 40 percent respectively) than did the girls (58 and 23 percent), while the girls were more afraid of natural phenomena -- such as thunder and the dark -- than were the boys (30 vs. 23 percent.) Boys also reported more fears than girls when the topic dealt with supernatural phenomena (14 vs. 12 percent) and school (12 vs. 7 percent.)
The researchers found that the presence of emotional indicators in each drawing accurately reflected the degree of anxiety the subjects expressed during the interviews. More importantly, in some cases the drawings also suggested that some children had fears and anxieties not revealed in the questionnaires or interviews.
"Human figure drawings could be a useful additional piece of data collected by nurses or physicians because these drawings might help explain a child's symptoms or behavior," said Ryan-Wenger.
Of course, not every child who includes emotional indicators in a human-figure drawing has a fear that could manifest itself and lead to future problems. Ryan-Wenger cautions parents about interpreting their child's drawings.
"Children tend to grow out of their fears," she said. "A fear is only really significant if it limits a child's normal behavior and growth and development."
Written by Holly Wagner, 614-292-8310; Wagner.235@osu.edu
Journal
Journal of Pediatric Health Care