Anxiety And Its Effects On Children

Childhood anxiety is quickly becoming the most challenging of all childhood problems. As the root of most problems, anxiety covers a long range of stressors that spread quickly if not treated or relieved early in life. Anxious feelings in children varies from children of all backgrounds. All people feel anxious at one point or another, and it is only when children are affected daily and unable to be calmed when people should become concerned. Many times, children are feeling overwhelmed and cannot express themselves or struggle to understand his/her feelings. Social and emotional development then plays a big part when facing concerns like anxiety in a young childhood environment. Teachers and caregivers need to take a step back and focus on what the child needs rather than what he/she can do to make children calm down. Through interventions, patience, and caring teachers, a young child does not need to be known as "The Child Who is Anxious", he/she can just be a child.

Current epidemiological data suggest anxiety disorders are the most prevalent type of childhood psychological disorders. Generalized Anxiety Disorder or GAD is described by excessive worrying about a variety of events, including those in the past, present, and future. Children with this disorder worry excessively about a number of issues, including past conversations or actions, upcoming events, school, family health, their own health, competence in sports or academics, and world events. Typically, children experiencing such excessive worry find it difficult to control the amount of time that they worry, and the worrying interferes in their daily life. Sometimes children don’t realize their anxiety is excessive considering the situation.

There are multiple factors we can attribute Jake’s anxiety to. In this essay we will focus on how Jake’s anxiety disorder would be treated by psychologists of three different perspectives; a behavioral psychologist, a humanistic psychologist, and a cognitive psychologist. While all would likely recognize that his more difficult classes are acting as a stimulus for his anxiety, a behavioral psychologists would emphasize that the stimuli’s role in his anxiety, a cognitive psychologist would focus on how the mind interprets its situation and perspective, and a humanistic psychologist would focus on how Jake’s self-esteem and self-concept is influencing his ability to achieve in his harder classes.

Stress and anxiety affect a large segment of the child and adolescent population. Numerous stressors from a wide range of domains contribute to the current levels of subclinical anxiety and diagnosed anxiety disorders. Without effective coping strategies, the cumulative effect of these stressors can lead to the clinical diagnosis of one or more anxiety disorders. Left untreated, these disorders can carry severe long-term consequences, including social, cognitive, and academic impairments. Furthermore, these deficiencies can lead to significant limitations in adulthood, such as reduced career choices, substance abuse, and an increase in the use of both mental and physical health care.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) (2016) about 6% of children in the United States suffer from a severe anxiety disorder. Other studies cite figures closer to 10% of children being affected by extreme anxiety disorders (Girling-Butcher & Ronan, 2009). While figures may vary slightly, there is no doubt that a large number of school-aged children grapple with a disorder that can disrupt and damage their functioning in schools and social situations. Chiu et al. (2013) state that anxious children can also suffer from “high rates of school refusal, poor academic performance and impairments in school functioning” (p. 142).

There were two studies that examined the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED). The Hale III et al. (2014) prospective cohort study was conducted to determine if frequent administration of the SCARED further distinguished between false positives and true positives with regard to DSM-5 diagnostic symptoms of anxiety disorder. While the Simon et al. (2009) prospective study was conducted to determine if results relating to high-anxious and median-anxious on the SCARED could be used to distinguish and predict various anxiety disorders. Both authors believe that anxiety disorders can take a serious toll on the quality of life and can financially drain the society. Simon et al. goes on to say that anxiety disorders that

Anxiety, also known as generalized anxiety disorder, is categorized by Mayo Clinic as “ongoing anxiety and worry that are difficult to control and interfere with day-to-day activities”(“Generalized”). According to Mayo Clinics article Generalized Anxiety Disorder that not only adults but also children and adolescent who have this disorder that “Your anxiety, worry or physical symptoms cause you significant distress in social, work or other areas of your life.” Everyone experiences anxiety at one point in their life it; however, becomes a disorder once it starts to interfere with the everyday life of that person. The symptoms of anxiety in adults are persistent worrying over normally insignificant details in life, overthinking, having difficulty

In the classroom many different anxieties are present whether educators know it or see it. It is not something a child might share but their actions speak larger than words. There are three main anxieties that are present in the classroom,There are three main anxieties that are present in the classroom, these include separation anxiety: When children are scared to be alone .Social anxiety: When children are scared and nervous of specific areas and lastly,Selective mutism: When children have a hard time speaking in different settings ( typically in front of the classroom).Along with these various names and labels, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental

In the realm of anxiety disorders, research on younger populations falls behind in comparison to studies on anxiety disorders in adults. (Mohr & Schneider, 2013) Anxiety is one of the most common psychiatric disorders among school age children, and yet there is still so much more to be known about its development and treatment. (Kessler et al., 2005). Anxiety in school age children can be an issue that interferes with achievement in school. The constant interference can cause disruption in a child's ability retain and process information as well as focus in the classroom. (Semple, Lee, Rosa, & Miller, 2010). Anxiety in children often manifests as a disruption in attention. In turn, the consequential lack of success in school can lead to more anxiety due to a student’s negative self-judgment (Gordon, 1977). This circle of cognitive interference in school and the following negative self-judgment by the child is one that can lead to increasing levels of anxiety. There have been multiple forms of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) that have shown some promise as treatments for childhood anxiety (Sullkowski, Joyce, & Storch, 2011). However with an increasing prevalence of childhood psychiatric disorders, there is still somewhat of lack of research in to the use of psychological interventions to treat them (Semple, Reid, & Miller, 2005).

One out of every twenty teenagers in the United States suffers from an anxiety disorder. Everyone becomes anxious once in awhile, but a teen with an anxiety disorder is constantly anxious. Teenagers who suffer from an anxiety disorder have excessive worry or fear. In today’s society, teenagers suffering from an anxiety disorder are becoming more frequent. Unfortunately, not all teenagers with an anxiety disorder are not diagnosed. Most parents don’t see that their child is struggling, leaving the teen to continue down this lonely, rocky slope. There are multiple anxiety disorder commonly found in teenagers, such as generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and social anxiety disorder.

Anxiety Disorder is a sudden feeling of qualms, uneasiness, nervousness, and anxiousness. Symptoms vary for each person. In the adolescent years anxiety shines the most. With school work, and social interaction. In our society, many people diagnose themselves with anxiety, because they are nervous, they believe they have an anxiety disorder. In the adolescent years anxiety is there, but usually mild, in today’s society, because studies show that anxiety has increased over the years. The denotation of anxiety is a sudden feeling of sickness, apprehension, paranoia. Eager and anxious are often used incorrectly, using the opposing one as the other. Anxiety means anticipation of an impending event. However, eager implies that the person looks

This was the second session that I met with Francie. In the last session, Francie told me that she is anxious when she is around her classmates and hopes to gain confidence, be more comfortable and relaxed, and have more friends. When I heard her say that she is anxious, the first intervention that came to my mind was Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): relaxation therapy because it has been proven to be one of the best treatments for anxiety (O’Hare 2015). Before starting the intervention, I wanted to understand Francie and the roots of her anxiety better.

Anxiety is a common reaction in the human body. So becoming a little scared when watching a movie, or beginning to become nervous right before a test, or maybe even a little shy talking to your crush is completely normal. It starts to become a problem when anxiety takes control and cuts out important things in our life. Children with anxiety might start to feel more often than usual fear, nervousness, shyness, and often will try to avoid social events. Anxiety is a normal part of childhood, and usually the child is just going through a phase and will grow out of it. But when it continuously keeps recurring it begins to become a problem. There are a multitude of anxiety disorder ranging from General Anxiety Disorder(G.A.D), Panic Disorder, Social

This is an article that specifically looks at anxiety in the school setting for adolescents. This article starts off with a story of a girl named Samantha. Samantha is a fourteen year old student that has test taking anxiety. She feels sweaty and would see the nurse daily because of her anxiousness. The article talks about the case of Samantha being common with many students in school. The article then goes into the different characteristics such as worry. Anxiety can manifest in three different ways: behaviorally, physiologically, and cognitively. Many different behaviors that children exhibit because of anxiety are reflected their attempts to control their anxiety. When discussing anxiety, there are different causes of anxiety and

Social Anxiety causes poor academic performance and high levels of academic anxiety can negatively affect working memory (Owens, Stevenson, Hadwin, & Norgate, 2012). This disables the student to pay attention to the lesson properly. Students with this disorder have weaker student teacher relationship, and therefore can cause conflicts, and less of a desire for a teacher to help that student. (Volbrechet 2010).