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Updated: Jul 21, 2026

Psychophysiological Assessment of the Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Strategies in Childhood
Published on: February 11, 2017
Fear in children and adolescents: relations with negative life events, attributional style, and avoidant coping
T H Ollendick1, A K Langley, R T Jones
1Child Study Center, Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg 24061, USA. tho@vt.edu
Abstract:
In this study, we explored relations among negative life events, negative attributional style, avoidant coping, and level of fear in 99 children who had survived residential fires. Overall, negative life events, negative attributional style, and avoidant coping were found to be predictive of levels of fear. However, the relation between negative life events and fear was moderated by mother's level of education such that this prediction was obtained only for those children whose mothers were low in education level. Age, ethnicity, and sex did not moderate these relations. In addition, negative attributional style and avoidant coping were related to levels of fear in those children whose mothers were high in education levels but not those whose mothers were low in education level. Results are discussed within a stress and coping framework.
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