Citation

Collings SJ, Gopal ND, Jameson DA, Kempster WE, Norton LM. Child Abuse Res. South Afr. 2019; 20(1): 11-15.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, South African Professional Society on the Abuse of Children)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The aim of this study was to validate the test specification for normative adolescent fears developed by Collings and Gopal (2016) using a cross-validation sample of 312 school-going adolescents attending high schools located in the North West province of South Africa. Data were analyzed using systematic content analysis, with study findings (a) providing support for the content validity of the test specification developed by Collings and Gopal and (b) confirming that the primary tenets of Conservation of Resources theory provide a comprehensive basis for conceptualizing normative adolescent fears. At a broader level, study findings pose a challenge to the somewhat idyllic view of childhood and adolescent fears suggested by the extant literature, in terms of which adolescent fears have been examined largely in relation to non-traumatic events (e.g., fears and phobias relating to animals, the dark, the unknown, and so on).

FINDINGS from the present study suggest, rather, that the dominant fears for South African adolescents are associated with actual (as opposed to hypothetical) exposure to traumatic events, with further research on this issue appearing to be strongly indicated.

Language: en