Fear and Safety Behaviours
This resource explores the concept of ‘safety behaviours’ in the context of fear and phobia management. It uses the example of Tara, a young person experiencing a fear of dogs, to illustrate how these habits prevent true habituation and mastery over anxiety
This resource is design to support the delivery of graded exposure treatment.
Free
Fear and Safety Behaviours
Free
Fear and Safety Behaviours
References and Further Reading
- Pincus, D. B., Ehrenreich-May, J., Whitton, S. W., Mattis, S. G., & Barlow, D. H. (2010). Cognitive-behavioral treatment of panic disorder in adolescence. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 39(5), 638–649. https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2010.501288.
- James, A. C., Reardon, T., Soler, A., James, G., & Creswell, C. (2020). Cognitive behavioural therapy for anxiety disorders in children and adolescents. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD013162.pub2.
- Peterman, J. S., Carper, M. M., & Kendall, P. C. (2016). Testing the Habituation-Based Model of Exposures for Child and Adolescent Anxiety. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, pp. 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2016.1163707.
- Rachman, S., Radomsky, A. S., & Shafran, R. (2008). Safety behaviour: A reconsideration. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 46(2), 163–173.
- Meyer et al. (2019). Beliefs about safety behaviours in the prediction of safety behaviour use. Published online by Cambridge University Press.

