Efficacy of Self-Instructional Training for Reducing Children's Dental Fear

Abstract

Two pre-posttest controlled group experiments were conducted to examine the efficacy of self-instructional training as a method to reduce children's dental fears. In the first experiment 30 dentally fearful children between the ages of 8 and 12 were assigned to one of three experimental conditions: training in threat-related verbal coping responses, training in competence-related verbal coping responses, an emotive imagery procedure, or to one of two control conditions: a placebo-or a no-treatment control group. Results indicate a significant anxiety reduction across all groups. No difference was found between groups. This result was attributed to an habituation effect due to exposure-in-vivo at pretest. In a second experiment, 29 highly fearful children were assigned to a competence-related self-speech group, an emotive-imagery or a no-treatment control group. This time no anxiety reduction was found. Combined with other studies, the present results raise critical questions regarding the potential efficacy of self-instructional training as a method to reduce serious fears in children.