Contemporary Preschoolers’ Fears through the Eyes of Their Parents: The Results of an Empirical Study

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Abstract

The article focuses on the results of an empirical study of preschoolers’ fears through the eyes of their parents. The research was conducted on the basis of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Contemporary Childhood in MSUPE in November 2022 – February 2023. Research methods included a questionnaire for parents of preschoolers elaborated by the research group and “Method of Regulating Fears and Anxiety in Children” by T. Rudskaya. 366 parents of preschoolers from different regions of the Russian Federation took part in the survey. The research provides information about the peculiarities of fears in contemporary Russian preschoolers, as well as on the association between children’s fears and such aspects of upbringing strategies as parents’ reactions to children’s fears and children’s “bad” behavior. In general, the empirical data testifies, that preschoolers’ fears are profoundly connected with the quality of parent-child interactions, which agrees with the results of Russian and foreign researchers.

General Information

Keywords: children’s fears, preschool age, parent-child relations, strategies of upbringing, anxiety, fear of darkness, fear of insects

Journal rubric: Developmental Psychology

Article type: scientific article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/psyedu.2023150205

Received: 22.05.2023

Accepted:

For citation: Kochetova Y.A., Rubtsova O.V., Husnutdinova M.R., Boguslavskaya E.V. Contemporary Preschoolers’ Fears through the Eyes of Their Parents: The Results of an Empirical Study [Elektronnyi resurs]. Psychological-Educational Studies, 2023. Vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 68–86. DOI: 10.17759/psyedu.2023150205. (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.)

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Information About the Authors

Yuliya A. Kochetova, PhD in Psychology, Professor, Chair of Scientific Basis of Extreme Psychology, Moscow State University of Psychology & Education, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9853-569X, e-mail: kochetovayua@mgppu.ru

Olga V. Rubtsova, PhD in Psychology, Associate Professor of the Department of "Age Psychology named after prof .L.F. Obukhova" of the Faculty of "Psychology of Education", Head of the "Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of Modern Childhood", Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3902-1234, e-mail: ovrubsova@mail.ru

Margarita R. Husnutdinova, PhD in Sociology, Senior Researcher, Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Contemporary Childhood, Moscow State University of Psychology & Education, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7688-0230, e-mail: husnutdinovaMR@mgppu.ru

Ekaterina V. Boguslavskaya, Master`s student of UNESCO Department of Cultural and Historical Psychology of Childhood, Moscow State University of Psychology & Education, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-5075-8030, e-mail: ekaterina051975@gmail.com

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