Efficacy of self-instructional training for reducing children's dental fear.

30 dentally fearful Ss (aged 8-12 yrs) were assigned to 1 of 3 experimental conditions (training in threat-related verbal coping responses, training in competence-related verbal coping responses, or training in an emotive-imagery procedure) or to 1 of 2 control conditions: a placebo or a no-treatment control group. Results indicate significant anxiety reduction across all groups. No difference was found between groups, possibly due to exposure-in-vivo at pretest. In a 2nd experiment, 29 highly fearful 8-22 yr olds were assigned to a competence-related self-speech group, an emotive-imagery, or a no-treatment control group. No anxiety reduction was found. The contrasting results raise questions regarding the potential efficacy of self-instructional training as a method to reduce serious fears in children.