How serious are common childhood fears? II. The parent's point of view

In an earlier study [Muris, P., Merckelbach, H., Mayer, B., & Prins, E. (19 99). How serious are common childhood fears? Behaviour Research and Therapy , in press.], the severity of common childhood fears was explored by means of a structured child interview measuring specific phobias as defined by th e Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. It was found that in a substantial minority of the children, specific fears reflect clinicall y significant phobias. The present study examined further the connection be tween childhood fears and specific phobias by interviewing children's paren ts. The Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children was administered to the parents of 160 children aged 4-12 years. In line with our previous study, r esults indicate that a sizable proportion of children (i.e. 17.6%) met the full criteria for specific phobia. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All right s reserved.