Covert Modeling Treatment of Children's Dental Fears

Abstract

Efficacy of covert modeling used in the treatment of children's dental fears was investigated. Following behavioral and self-report pretreatment evaluation, subjects were randomly assigned to four experimental and one control condition. Regardless of assignment, all subjects imagined two successive hierarchies of increasingly anxiety-provoking, dental-related scenes. In a three-factor repeated measure design, experimental groups visualized one model (single) or two models (multiple) as consistently (mastery) or progressively (coping) nonanxious. No-model controls imagined a similar repeated hierarchy without a child model present. Posttreatment evaluation (5 to 15 days later) found significant behavioral anxiety reduction across all groups. In contrast to previous findings using covert modeling treatment with adults, type and number of models imagined did not significantly effect behavioral anxiety reduction. Self-report anxiety decline was sporadic. Recommendations were made specifically with regard to future research using covert modeling in the treatment of children's fears.