Positive Confrontation of Fears in Childhood

Abstract

Fears are part of the human being. Many childhood fears are natural and tend to develop at specific ages. For example, many
children are afraid of the dark and may need a nightlight to sleep. In most cases, they will grow out of this fear as they get older. The
bases to confront a feared situation are built in the childhood. The child is not always able to find the best way to control his fear, so is
the responsibility of the parents or of the other attachment persons to help them. According to the Child Anxiety Network, the imaginaty
things such as ghosts, monsters, the dark, sleeping alone etc are extremely common and considered normal at the children aged 3 – 4
years. Most of the parents or the attachment persons tent to stop their children watching cartoon movies with terrific characters such as
ghosts, monsters etc. In general there is the thought that when children watch such movies, they feel intimidated and react aggressively
to the environment and people around them. But is that true? I am of the opinion that during the watching of such movies, always in the
company of parents or attachment persons, children unconsciously process their fears; in this way they give an image to their fears and
learn to handle them. Certainly, the parents or other attachments persons should be near the children, when they watch such movies, so
the children feel safe and protected.I have conducted a research whose hypothesis is: If the children aged 3 – 4 year watch in the
presence of parents or other attachment persons movies with terrific cartoon characters, they reduce and manage their fears. The
results of this research confirmed the hypothesis.