Stranger anxiety
Stranger anxiety is a form of distress that children experience when exposed to strangers. Stranger anxiety and stranger fear are two interchangeable terms. Stranger anxiety is a typical part of the developmental sequence that most children experience. It can occur even if the child is with a caregiver or another person they trust. It peaks from six to 12 months but may recur afterwards until the age of 24 months. As a child gets older, stranger anxiety can be a problem as they begin to socialize. Children may become hesitant to play with unfamiliar children. Foster children are especially at risk, particularly if they experienced neglect early in their life.
The anxiety children experience when meeting a stranger is based on the sensation of fear they develop when introduced to an unfamiliar factor in their life that elicits the feeling of fear. They are not born with the awareness that meeting a stranger for the first time will cause them to be fearful. The child discovers this feeling when facing the stimulus, in this case a stranger, for the first time. Experiencing fear causes toddlers to sense they are in a potentially threatened position and therefore, they go towards their caregiver in order to seek protection from the stranger. This reaction enables children to develop instincts to guide them when they feel endangered and seek the protection of a familiar and trusted individual to ensure their safety and survival. The stimuli which provoke a child's anxiety in the presence of a stranger are influenced by the individual's age, gender and his or her distance from the toddler. When a child is in the company of an unknown child, they are less frightened than if they were with an unknown adult. This is due to the height of the individual. The taller the person, the more frightening they seem. In addition, children are more fearful of a stranger when they are standing in close proximity to them, while their caregiver is farther away or completely out of their sight. The gender of the stranger contributes to the level of anxiety a child experiences. When in the presence of a male, the child feels more anxious than in front of a female.
The anxiety a child feels when facing a stranger is based on various fears that arise in them. A few of these are based on the actions the stranger could unexpectedly take. For example, the child worries they can be taken away from their caregiver or harmed. The fear of the unknown elicits the anxiety. Although anxiety can go away in few minutes, it could also last a long time. As children reach the age of two, their feelings of anxiety in the presence of strangers are nearly gone. However, some children can still experience apprehension up until the age of four. It is less probable for toddlers to experience anxiety in the presence of a stranger if a figure they trust, such as their caregivers, perform positive interactions with this person. For example, they employ a calm tone of voice, they smile and hug the stranger. This enables the child to feel a certain reassurance seeing that their caregiver does not show any sign of fear in the presence of this individual.
Onset
Stranger anxiety develops slowly; it does not just appear suddenly. It typically first starts to appear around four months of age with infants behaving differently with caregivers than with strangers. In fact, there is a difference between their interactions with their caregiver and the stranger. They become cautious when strangers are around; therefore, preferring to be with their caregiver instead of the stranger. Around 7–8 months, stranger anxiety becomes more present; therefore, it occurs more frequently at this point. Infants start to be aware of their environment and they are aware of their relationships with people; so, stranger anxiety is clearly displayed. Around this time, children choose and prefer to be with their primary caregiver. As a child's cognitive skills develop and improve, typically around 12 months, their stranger anxiety can become more intense. They display behaviors like running to their caregiver, grabbing at the caregiver's legs, or demanding to be picked up. Children seem also to respond more positively to a person who gives positive reinforcements and more negatively to a person who gives negative reinforcements.Fearfulness within the sight of outsiders is thought to be developed around 6 months of age. In fact, that fear of strangers increases throughout their first year of life. The beginning of stranger fear is accepted to be adaptive, offering balance to infants' tendencies toward approach and exploration and adding to the developing attachment system. However, in extreme cases of stranger fear, this can be a warning sign to the emergence of social anxiety. According to the University of Pittsburgh, stranger anxiety tends to be seen before separation anxiety.
Signs of stranger anxiety
According to the University of Pittsburgh based on the child, signs of stranger anxiety can differ from one to child the other. For example;- In the presence of a stranger, some infants can abruptly go quiet and look at the stranger with fear.
- Certain emotions will increase in other children while in the presence of a stranger such as loud crying and fussiness.
- And others will have the tendency to bury themselves in their caregiver's arms or even place themselves away from the stranger by placing the caregiver between themselves and the stranger.
Modeling and stranger anxiety
Infancy
Parental attitudes also have an effect on a child's fear acquisition. In their early months and years, infants acquire most of their behavioral information for their direct family and often, their primary caregivers. Young infants are more selective and preferentially learn about new threats for their mother's responses. High risk mothers can easily influence their child's responses since are more likely to mimic their actions. For example, a child who sees their mother demonstrating negative reactions towards a specific person, then the child is more likely to have a negative response towards that same person. While most studies have researched the effect of mothers' behaviors on their children, it is important to note that the effect of parental modeling is not unique to mothers, but the phenomenon occurs for both mothers and fathers.Implications
Fear beliefs that occur vicariously can be reversed using the same form of acquisition through a vicarious counter-conditioning procedure. For example, a parent can show a stranger's angry face with happy face or a scared-paired animal with happy faces as well and vice versa. Also, feared responses seem to decrease with time if infants are provided with opportunities to have physical contact with the stimuli which helps alleviate the stimuli's fearful properties.Childhood
Stranger fear is less likely in older children since there is a greater readiness for them to accept behavioral information from outside the family. However, studies show that older children do exhibit increased anxiety to new threats and avoidant responses following discussion with parents. The effect of parental modeling of anxiety on children may go beyond influencing anxious behaviors in children, but also affect their subjective feelings and cognition during middle childhood.Implications
This has important implications for parents and those working with school-age children because it suggests that they can potentially prevent or reverse fear developing if they recognize a child is involved in a fear-related vicarious learning event. In cases where infants become fearful of strangers or unknown entities, parents should respond positively towards the stranger, only after the child has a phobic response to it.Dealing with stranger anxiety
Since stranger anxiety can manifest itself suddenly or happen gradually throughout the development of the toddler, dealing with it can be hard sometimes because people are often not prepared to react to it or they don't even know what stranger anxiety is. Stranger anxiety should be viewed as a normal, common part of a child's development.Since it is often characterized by negative emotions and fear, multiple steps were created to induct a feeling of trust and safety between the child and the strangers.
- Addressing the issue with the stranger ahead of time, so that they can learn to approach the child slowly, giving them time to warm up. The stranger should be informed of the child's fear, so they are not hurt when the child reacts negatively to them.
- Holding child's hand when they are introduced to new people has been found to be a good way to create a feeling of trust between them and the stranger.
- Frequently introducing children to new people. Taking them to places where they might interact with strangers.
- Being patient when a fearful situation shows up will be crucial. If rushed, child can become even more sensitive.
- Gradually bringing new babysitters or child-care workers into the child's life.
- Showing understanding of the fears of children should be priority number one. Ignoring or dismissing these feelings will only aggravate the problem.
- Above all, the child's feelings should always be valued more than the strangers'. Patience and respect are very important when dealing with stranger anxiety. A child should never be labeled or ridiculed for being frightened.