Fears in mental retardation: Part one—Types of fears reported by men and women with and without mental retardation

Abstract

Mentally retarded (MR) and non-mentally retarded (NMR) adults matched for parental occupational levels were compared in their responses to a modified version of the Fear Survey Schedule (FSS-III) allowing only three response categories. The fear items were subdivided into five dimensional categories of fear types: Social Rejection (SR), Agoraphobia (Ag), Tissue damage (TD), Sex and Aggression (SA) and Animal (An). The MR group showed a higher level of self-reported fear overall, modified by a significant group by fear type interaction. All fear types except SR contributed to the overall difference, particularly An and TD type fears. For SR fears, the direction of the difference was marginally reversed. In the NMR group, the usual finding that women express more fears than men was replicated, but there was no sex difference in the MR group. Explanations in terms of linguistic competence, parenting, and social and gender-identity factors are discussed.