| Fear of children | |
|---|---|
| Other names | Pedophobia, paedophobia, pediaphobia |
| Specialty | Psychiatry |
Fear of children, occasionally calledpaedophobia, is fear triggered by the presence or thinking ofchildren orinfants. It is an emotional state of fear, disdain, aversion, or prejudice toward children. Paedophobia is in some usages identical toephebiphobia.[1][2][3]
The fear of children has been diagnosed and treated by psychiatrists, with studies examining the effects of multiple forms of treatment.[4] Studies have identified the fear of children as a factor affecting biological conception in humans.[5][6]
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Paedophobia is the British English spelling, andpediaphobia is another alternate spelling. The terms come from the Greek roots παιδ-paid- (child) and φόβος-phóbos (fear). Pedophobia is not to be confused with pediophobia (fear of dolls) or podophobia (fear of feet).
Letty Cottin Pogrebin, a founding editor ofMs. magazine, diagnosed America as having an "epidemic of paedophobia", saying that, "though most of us make exceptions for our own offspring, we do not seem particularly warm-hearted towards other people's children."[7] Evidenced more succinctly by theCinderella effect inevolutionary psychology, this may mostly be explained viakin selection.
One author suggests that the cause of the fear of children inacademia specifically extends fromadults' distinct awareness of the capacity of children: "Children embarrass us because they point ever too cleverly and clearly to our denial of personal, material, and maternal history."[8]
One report suggests that the source of current trends in the fear of children have a specific source:James Q. Wilson, a professor atUCLA's School of Management, who in 1975 helped inaugurate the current climate of pedophobia when he said "acritical mass of younger persons... creates an explosive increase in the amount of crime."[9]
Sociologists have situated "contemporary fears about children and childhood" as "contributing to the ongoing social construction of childhood", suggesting that "generational power relations, in which children's lives are bounded by adult surveillance" affect many aspects of society.[10]
Efforts to decrease inattention to the needs of children or opposition to youths is a focus of several internationalsocial justice movements addressing young people, includingchildren's rights andyouth participation. Major international organizations addressing discrimination, either outright or by implication, includeSave the Children andChildren's Defense Fund. However, some organizations, particularly those associated with theyouth rights movement, claim that these movements perpetuate discrimination.[11]
The United Nations has created theConvention on the Rights of the Child, which is implicitly designed to fosterintergenerational equity between children and adults.[12]
The influence of the fear of youths inAmerican popular culture is examined by critical media analysts who have identified the effects of pedophobia in bothDisney[13] andhorror films.[14]
Other authors and scholars, includingHenry Giroux,[15]Mike Males, andBarbara Kingsolver[16] have suggested that the popular modern fear of youths stems fromcorporatisation ofmass media and its complicity with a range ofpolitical andeconomic interests. Males perhaps goes the furthest, and wrote an entire book exploring the subject.[17]
But it appears that an aversion to young people, or "paedophobia", is becoming a national phenomenon.
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