Coping with Fears and Stress. From the ERIC database Coping with Fears and Stress. The numbers of untreated population often run as much as two times those of the treated population. His findings suggest that children may have some inherent predisposition toward fearfulness.
Some children are much more prone to fearful behaviors from birth than other children.
He also noted that over a period of 8 years some children who were more fearful at birth became less so and some who were less fearful became more so. This suggests that, although there may be a hereditary link involved in the development of fear, environmental factors also play a large part in the development of children's fears. The degree of fear is related to the child's perception of vulnerability. In the fear cycle, the child perceives an object or concept, which is compared with one's sense of self and one's personal resources. As a result of the action, the child again examines the potential threat of the fear object.