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Etiology of childhood phobias: current status of Rachman’s three pathways theory
Abstract
Despite advances in the assessment and treatment of childhood phobias, little is known about their etiology. Rachman has proposed that phobias are acquired through three different pathways: direct conditioning, modeling or instructions/information. We evaluate the empirical support for Rachman's theory in relation to the origins of childhood phobias. Although we find support for Rachman's theory, a number of methodological and theoretical issues are emphasized. For example, insufficient attention has been given to the reliability and validity of retrospective subject reports on the acquisition of childhood phobias. Also some findings on the origins of childhood fears and phobias are more consistent with a nonassociative account of phobia onset, thus providing an interesting challenge to Rachman's theory.
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“Parents of phobic preschoolers may be especially inclined to provide learning contexts associated with fear as many parents experience phobias themselves (King et al., 1998; Murray & Foote, 1979).”
From Specific Phobia in Young Children: Associations between the Origins of Fear and Clinical Expression of Phobia Symptoms. (2025) · cites this paper as King et al., 1998
In the citing paper
“This study extends upon the current literature by considering and comparing the combinations of pathways, including direct and indirect combined and both indirect pathways combined, which are hypothesised to occur naturally during daily interactions (King et al., 1998; Murray et al., 2009); including all reported phobia subtypes; and addressing some of the methodological limitations of previous re”
From Specific Phobia in Young Children: Associations between the Origins of Fear and Clinical Expression of Phobia Symptoms. (2025) · cites this paper as King et al., 1998
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Metadata
- Authors
- King, N. J., Eleonora, G., & Ollendick, T. H.
- Affiliations
- Monash University (AU)
- Virginia Tech (US)
- Corresponding author
- King, Neville J.
- ORCID
- Ollendick, Thomas H.
- Venue
- Behaviour Research and Therapy
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 1998-03
- Volume
- 36
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 297-309
- ISSN
- 0005-7967 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2062543094
- Cited by
- 136
- References
- 59
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 0.95
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Behaviour Research and Therapy (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Keywords
- childhood phobia, etiology, modeling, information acquisition, retrospective reports, fear acquisition
- MeSH terms
- Attention, Child, Conditioning, Psychological, Female, Humans, Imitative Behavior, Male, Phobic Disorders, Mental Recall, Retrospective Studies
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