Survey of Entomophobia in Nursery Teachers Compared to That in Nursery Teaching Students and Ordinary Women

Abstract

To understand the level of Entomophobia in nursery teachers, we undertook a questionnaire survey of nursery teachers, students taking a nursery teacher-training course, and ordinary women. Results indicated that nursery teachers tend to like arthropods and can look at photographs and illustrations of them more comfortably when compared to the students and ordinary women. An age-based analysis showed that nursery teachers in their 20s– 50s were able to view photographs and illustrations of arthropods with less resistance than students and ordinary women of the same generation. There was no significant difference between participants in the 20–40 age range, but nursery teachers in their 50s showed greater preference to arthropods than university students and ordinary women. As the degree of preference for arthropods had a stronger influence on their confidence in arthropod-related childcare rather than the degree to which they could look at arthropods, it is necessary to develop training to encourage nursery teachers to like arthropods through experiences of seeing, touching, collecting and rearing such creatures.