0 the quality of being frightened or worried about something:
Rats handled in the first 3 weeks of life show decreased fearfulness in new environments.
There was a general fearfulness about the ability of the state to look after our health and safety.
Many of these children do not develop psychiatric symptoms despite high levels of fearfulness or frustration.
The effects of fearfulness and frustration appeared to be attenuated by high levels of effortful control.
Effortful control and frustration, but not fearfulness, also predicted the development of problems between pre- and early adolescence.
In addition, consistent with previous analyses was the negative association between maternal sensitivity and child fearfulness.
However, specific aspects of temperamental difficulty such as fearfulness and anger were related to internalizing and externalizing, respectively, in both the intervention and control groups.
In the distrust example, caregivers should emotionally connect to and empathize with anger, frustration, fearfulness, and other emotions that often ride with distrust.
