Verbal parental transmission of threat information about strangers may influence fear beliefs and avoidance responses in children. Earlier studies showed that sharing threat information with...Show moreVerbal parental transmission of threat information about strangers may influence fear beliefs and avoidance responses in children. Earlier studies showed that sharing threat information with children caused higher levels in fear beliefs and higher avoidance responses compared to when safe information was shared. There is proof that fearful temperament/behavioral inhibition (BI), moderate the relation between children receiving threat information and scoring higher on fear beliefs and avoidance responses. In this study, parents provided threat and safe information about two strangers to their children (N = 72, Mage = 11.67). Following the manipulation, children went through three social tasks twice with each of the strangers and reported fear beliefs in a questionnaire for each stranger. Avoidance behavior was observed in the social tasks. Fearful temperament was used as an individual difference predictor and was measured by the Early Adult Temperament Questionnaire. Verbal transmission of threat information was linked to higher fear belief scores compared to safe information. Verbal transmission of threat information was not linked to higher avoidance behavior responses. The fear beliefs outcomes and the behavioral responses were not affected by fearful temperament. This study only found proof that verbal parental transmission of threat information about strangers increased children’s’ fear beliefs and may increase the risks of developing SAD. This study has his strengths and limitations regarding the procedure and chosen measurements, but hopefully gives new inspiration to new or follow-up research about verbal parental transmission of threat information about strangers and the effects on children.Show less
Research indicates that financial hardship is often accompanied by feelings of shame which in general leads to individuals to showing avoidance behavior. Particularly, individuals experiencing...Show moreResearch indicates that financial hardship is often accompanied by feelings of shame which in general leads to individuals to showing avoidance behavior. Particularly, individuals experiencing financial shame oftentimes partake into avoidance behavior when it comes to financial support. This study aimed to investigate whether shame resilience increases the willingness to contact a creditor and whether shame resilience decreases avoidance action tendencies of individuals experiencing financial hardship. A between-subject design was implemented whereat participants in the shame resilience group (N = 64) were compared to participants in the control group (N = 69). Within an online experiment, the randomly assigned participants recalled a financial hardship experience, read one out of two creditor letters, and were presented with several Likert-scale questions. Participants in the shame resilience group reported higher levels of a willingness to contact compared to the participants in the control group. Regarding the voidance action tendencies, three items were analysed separately due to a low reliability. No differences were found on refuse action and distract action tendencies between the participants in both groups. However, participants in the shame resilience group reported lower levels of ignore action tendencies compared to the participants in the control group. Potential explanations for this, additional findings, strengths, and limitations are discussed and implications for future research are proposed.Show less
