Fears in British children and their relationship to manifest anxiety and depression

In the present study, we examined the pattern and intensity of fears in 327 British school children and the relation of those fears to anxiety and depression. The fears reported by the British children were found to be nearly identical to those found in Australian and American children (Ollendick, King & Frary, 1989). Further, although a moderate relation was found between fear and anxiety, only a modest relation was found between fear and depression. Anxiety and depression, however, were highly inter-related. Results of the study are explored in terms of the uniqueness of the constructs of fear, anxiety, and depression and their possible contribution to a more global construct, labeled 'negative affectivity' by Watson and Clark (1984).