Fear and Anxiety in Young Children and Their Assessment
Fear and anxiety are normal aspects of childhood development. For some young children, the experience of fear and anxiety can become severe and chronic and can start to interfere with daily life. If intervention is not provided, these problems tend to remain fairly stable over childhood and adolescence and are associated with an increased risk for other mental health problems across the life span. Before interventions can be delivered to young children, early detection of fear and anxiety using psychometrically sound and standardized measures is needed. In addition to providing a review of fear and anxiety in young children, this chapter provides a summary of the methods used to assess anxiety in this age group, discussing relevant measures along with the pragmatics of assessment. A multimethod, multisource approach to the assessment of fear and anxiety in young children is recommended.