The purpose of this study was to determine whether techniques used in bibliotherapy through listening would be effective in reducing the fears manifested by young children three to five years of age.The following two hypotheses were tested:Hypothesis 1. There is no significant difference between the mean adjusted posttest scores on the Link Children's Fear Scale of a group of young children experiencing bibliotherapy through listening to reduce expressed fears and a group of young children experiencing neutral stories.Hypothesis 2. There is no significant difference between the mean adjusted posttest scores on the Link Children's Fear Scale of a group of young children experiencing bibliotherapy through listening to reduce expressed fears and a non-treatment group of young children.Three groups of children were involved in the study. The experimental bibliotherapy through listening group (N=28) listened to stories related to fears which young children experience. Following each story there was time for discussion concerning feelings and reactions to the story. The neutral story group (N=28) listened to stories of general content not stressing fear and participated in follow-up discussion. The non-treatment group (N=25) were involved only in pretesting and posttesting. Changes in responses by members of the three groups were compared using a pretest/ posttest statistical design.All eighty-one children in the study attended a Day Care Center and were randomly assigned to one of three groups for this investigation. The population contained a varied intellectual racial and socio-economic blend of students. The story reading and discussion sessions met biweekly for eight weeks with the treatment groups sharing a total of sixteen books. Pupils'in each age level were read to separately in order for small numbers to be maintained for story reading and discussion.The Link Children's Fear Scale, designed to measure fears common to kindergarten children, was administered individually as a pretest and posttest. The instrument contains twenty-four questions requiring a positive or negative response. The questions relate to fear of the dark, fear of death, fear of animals and fear of being left alone. The instrument has a maximum score of twenty-four points. Higher scores are interpreted as indicative of a greater number of fears. Link's instrument was judged to have face validity by authorities and personnel in the field of early childhood education. Construct validity was established by factor analysis with a reliability coefficient of .70.Analysis of covariance was the statistical treatments applied to the data collected. In order to determine whether the hypotheses as stated should be accepted or rejected an a priori comparison was applied. The Bonferroni t statistic (as reported in Roger E. Kirk in Experimental Design: Procedures for the Behavioral Sciences) was utilized.The results of the analysis indicated there was a significant difference in the adjusted mean posttest score of a group of young children experiencing bibliotherapy through listening and the adjusted mean posttest score of a group of young children experiencing neutral stories. There was also a significant difference in the adjusted mean posttest score of a group of young children experiencing bibliotherapy through listening and the adjusted mean posttest score of a non-treatment group of children.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/179255 |
| Date | January 1979 |
| Creators | Ongoa, Esther Ruth, 1930- |
| Contributors | Harshbarger, Mary E. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | vi, 67 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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