How Anxious are German Preschool Children?
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Updated: Nov 6, 2025

Using the Threat Probability Task to Assess Anxiety and Fear During Uncertain and Certain Threat
Published on: September 12, 2014
Daniela Ehrenberg1, Arnold Lohaus2, Kerstin Konrad3
1Department of Psychology, Institute of Clinical Psychology, Psychotherapy and Assessment, University of Braunschweig, Humboldtstraße 33, 38106, Braunschweig, Germany. d.ehrenberg@tu-braunschweig.de.
Abstract:
The experience of fear is universal and is among the earliest of all forms of psychopathology, if excessively present. To prevent negative developmental outcomes due to early-onset excessive fears in children, it is important to systematically assess these experiences as early as possible. Using the preschool anxiety scale (PAS), we aimed to assess the frequency and structure of anxiety symptoms of 489 preschool-aged children raised in their biological family and 88 raised in foster care (as a high-risk sample) in Germany. While these young children displayed the same types of anxiety most commonly as young children in other countries, the overall occurrence seems to be reported less often by parents in Germany compared to parents from other countries. Anxiety symptoms clustered into five correlated factors (generalized anxiety, social anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), physical injury fear and separation anxiety). Young children in foster care exhibited more OCD and significantly less social anxiety symptoms indicating early repetitive and social disturbances in children in foster care.
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