FEAR OF WATER IN CHILDREN AND ADULTS - ETIOLOGY AND FAMILIAL EFFECTS

Water-fearful children (non-swimmers, 5-8 yr) and adults (non-swimmers or late learners, 23-73 yr) were compared with non-fearful controls o f similar swimming ability. Parallel assessments were carried out with children and adults to investigate water-related experiences, water f ear and competence in parents and siblings, and the relationship of wa ter fear to other fear dimensions. Children were assessed behaviorally and by self and mother's report, adults by self-report. In neither ch ildren nor adults was there clear evidence that fearful and non-fearfu l groups differed in incidence of aversive water-related experience be fore fear onset. Parents usually believed that children's fear was pre sent at first contact. In both samples, we found parent-offspring and sibling resemblances in fear. Analysis of details of children's contac t with parents suggested that social learning within the family decrea sed water fear rather than increasing it; when both child and parent s howed fear, that was as likely to reflect genetic influences as modeli ng. Young children's water fear forms part of a generic cluster, fear of the Unknown or Danger, while in adults it becomes independent of ge neric fears. Copyright (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.