The objective of this study was to explore the five most frequently reported fears in a sample of university students, and investigate the origins of these fears. The study employed a cross-sectional design with convenience sampling. Data were collected using a self-report questionnaire and analysed using a combination of descriptive statistics and content analysis. Participants consisted of 544 first-year psychology students. This study identified academic failure, animals, general failure, losing loved ones to death, and violence/crime as the top five fears among a sample of university students. ‘Conditioning experiences’ was one of the most prominent pathways in the acquisition of all these fears. ‘Negative information transmission’ was also a dominant pathway relating to the origin of fear such as academic failure and violence/crime. However, ‘modelling experiences’ was not identified as a prominent pathway in the present study. These findings contribute to identifying the origins of first-year students’ self-reported fears by using the three pathways theory. These findings may contribute meaningfully to the development and implementation of prevention and intervention programmes at higher education institutions.

中文翻译：

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学生的自我报告的恐惧及其感知的根源

这项研究的目的是探讨大学生样本中五种最常报告的恐惧，并调查这些恐惧的根源。该研究采用了方便取样的横断面设计。使用自我报告调查表收集数据，并使用描述性统计和内容分析相结合的方法进行分析。参加者包括544名一年级心理学学生。这项研究将学业失败，动物，一般性失败，失去亲人的生命以及暴力/犯罪确定为大学生样本中的前五名恐惧。“经历”是获得所有这些恐惧的最主要途径之一。“负信息传递”也是与恐惧根源有关的主要途径，例如学术失败和暴力/犯罪。然而，在本研究中，“建模经验”没有被确定为主要途径。这些发现有助于通过使用三种途径理论来识别一年级学生自我报告的恐惧的根源。这些发现可能对高等教育机构中预防和干预计划的制定和实施做出有意义的贡献。