The Effect of Fantasy Facilitation of Anxiety in Chronically 111 and Healthy Children

Fantasy may be an effective coping mechanism by which chronically ill children can deal with the anxiety aroused by the stress of their diseases. In order to explore this hypothesis, 26 chronically ill and 26 healthy children were assigned randomly to either fantasy facilitation or attention control treatment conditions. These interventions were carried out in the home by each child's mother under supervision of the first author. Anxiety was assessed before and after treatment. Chronically ill children were significantly more anxious than the healthy children on pretreatment measures of anxiety. The fantasy facilitation treatment was effective in reducing anxiety for both groups of children. The attention control condition resulted in no change in anxiety level. Implications for psychological intervention with medically ill children, as well as for theories of coping, are discussed. KEY WORDS: children; chronic illness; anxiety; guided imagery; intervention. The reduction of children's anxiety associated with physical disease (se