A Comparative Analysis of Selected Adolescent Fears

The subject of adolescent fears troubling today's generation was studied with the question of specific fears and methods of questioning. It was hypothesized that direct, close-ended questions related to the fear of nuclear war and the fear of failure would elicit responses of greater fear than would indirect, open-ended questions about the future. It was also hypothesized that there would be sex differences in fearfulness of nuclear war with females indicating more fear. It was also expected that there would be developmental differences with 8th-grade subjects more fearful of nuclear war than 12th-grade subjects, and with the older subjects more fearful of failure. Results revealed that style of questioning and treatment group interaction had no significant effect. Significant results were related to grade level effects. Eighth graders were generally more fearful of nuclear war. Future research is encouraged to investigate intermediate grade level responses.