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.Stranger anxiety It peaks from six to 12 months- but may recur afterwards until the age of 24 months.What to Expect. Toddler Stranger Anxiety. 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, signs of stranger anxiety can differ from one child to the other, based on the child. For example; In the presence of a stranger, some infants can abruptly go quiet and look at the stranger with fear. In other children, certain emotional responses will increase while in the presence of a stranger such as loud crying and fussiness. 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 from their direct family and often, their primary caregivers. Young infants are more selective and preferentially learn about new threats from their mother's responses. High risk mothers can easily influence their child's responses since the child is more likely to mimic their mother’s actions. For example, if a child 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, 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, fear 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 (i.e. at least six years old) since there is a greater readiness for them to accept behavioral information from outside the family. However, studies show that when parents discuss new threats with older children, those children tend to become more anxious about them and more likely to avoid them.
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. If an infant shows fear toward a stranger or unfamiliar object, parents should wait until after the child reacts fearfully, then respond calmly and positively toward the stranger — this helps reassure the child rather than preempting the fear before it happens.
Dealing with stranger anxiety Because stranger anxiety can appear suddenly or build up gradually as a toddler develops, it can be hard to handle — people are often caught off guard, either because they don’t know how to react or because they aren’t even aware that stranger anxiety is a normal thing. 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 induce 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 a 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, children 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.
Extreme anxiety can affect development, especially if a child is so terrified that they will not explore new environments and hinder themselves from learning. Also, research shows that exposure to circumstances that produce persistent fear and chronic anxiety can have a lifelong effect on a child's brain by disrupting its developing architecture. While stranger anxiety is a normal part of child development, if it becomes so severe that it restricts normal life professional help might be necessary. Seeking the help of a pediatrician is recommended if the situation doesn't improve, or even regresses over time. Often, pediatricians will be able to find the origin of the child's anxiety and create a plan of action in order to rectify the situation.
Stranger anxiety and autism spectrum disorder According to the American Psychiatric Association, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is defined as "a developmental disorder characterized by troubles with social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior". There is a significant overlap between the behaviors that characterize ASD and those observed in stranger anxiety, which makes diagnoses and research more difficult. However, individuals with ASD often have a rigid understanding of the world and behave in a very rule-based and compartmentalized manner, depending on their placement on the spectrum. Thus, the social interactions and stranger approaches seen in children are often modeled from their caretakers and are based on the rules they are told.
Modelling in stranger anxiety in ASD