Interviewers' notes about section B: Specific phobias

This section is about intense and disabling fears of specific objects and situations. Most children have some fears, but what we mainly want to find out is whether they have a phobia that may need treatment. To decide that a fear is a phobia, what we are looking for is evidence that a fear is so strong that it is either causing considerable distress or that it is interfering with the child's life because he or she is going to great lengths to avoid the feared stimulus. So we wouldn't be particularly interested in a fear of snakes if this did not cause a lot of distress and only led to the child avoiding the reptile house when going to the zoo. We would, however, take seriously a fear of thunder that was so intense that the child often refused to leave the house just in case a storm suddenly brewed up and thunder began whilst they were away from home.

The section on specific phobias begins by asking about the situations or objects that children are most often scared of. We want to know about all the child's fears. Again, as in the previous section, we are interested in how the child is usually and not just on the occasional 'off day'.

Some fears are seasonal and if you just asked about the last few months, you might miss them. For example, some children are truly phobic of wasps or daddy-long-legs but if you asked in March whether they are scared of them every day, the answer would probably be 'No'. For these seasonal phobias, it is important to ask about the children's fears and behaviours in the relevant season.

'Do [child's name]'s fears lead to his/her avoiding the things s/he is afraid of?' Sometimes, interviewers are reluctant to ask this question because they can't see how a child could avoid the situation or object that they are afraid of - loud noises, for example. But the truth is that children can be very inventive in finding (or trying to find) ways to avoid things they are afraid of. For example, a child who is afraid of loud noises may try to avoid fireworks parties or may refuse to go to school on days when they are due to test the fire alarms.

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Last modified : 05/09/09