YESSAT 北京市朝阳区大望路蓝堡国际中心 2 座 9 层 TEL：85997563/85997217 Research Report: Jaws of Anxiety Not too many of us enjoy going to the dentist. Read this article from PSYCHOLOGY TODAY to learn more about some people’s fear of facing the drill. As he climbs into the dentist’s chair for the first time, three-year-old Danny clearly would rather be somewhere else. He’s already squirming like a hooked trout and seems on the verge of tears. The most probable explanation for Danny’s anxiety is: 1) the office sound system is playing Neil Diamond again; 2) Danny is just a nervous kid; 3) Danny’s mother, no fan of dentists herself, transmitted her own anxiety to her son. Many dentists would blame Danny’s nervousness on mom, but a study at North Carolina State University suggests that the second explanation is correct. Researchers videotaped the dental debuts of 46 three-year-olds and noted any anxious behavior, from fidgeting to outright attempts to flee from the dentist’s chair. Meanwhile, the mothers reported how anxious they felt about their child’s examination and about their own dental visits. They also filled out questionnaires designed to estimate their offspring’s day-to-day anxiety level. The results? “A mother’s anxiety did not appear to affect her child,” says NCSU psychologist Lynne Baker-Ward, Ph.D. The best predictor of a kid’s anxiety level inside the dentist’s office, it turned out, was his anxiety level outside the dentist’s office. Although nervous toddlers did have nervous moms, the mothers seemed to be responding to the kid’s anxiety, rather than vice versa. The researcher’s conclusions were bolstered by an experiment in which some families watched a reassuring dental...
