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The Emotional Impact of Frightening Stories on Children
Author(s) -
Orbach Israel,
Vinkler Edith,
HarEven Dov
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-7610.1993.tb00999.x
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology
This study of the impact of fairy tales examined catharsis vs repetition compulsion hypotheses. Children with high‐or low‐trait anxiety, aged 6–9 (n = 132), listened either to a frightening story, a frightening‐happy end story, a pause story (for measuring anxiety), or a neutral story. They were tested for slate anxiety before and afterwards and their preference for a second hearing was evaluated. The procedure was repeated after three weeks. The findings show an increase in anxiety following the frightening story only. Preference and state anxiety correlated positively in the frightening story (repetition compulsion) and negatively in the pause story (catharsis), It was concluded that anxiety is elicited by (he frightening elements of the story, rather than the unconscious symbolic content.