Childhood Anxiety: A Case Study

Such toxic stress can have damaging effects on learning, behavior, and health across the lifespan. Learning how to cope with adversity is an important part of healthy child development. The most effective prevention is to reduce exposure of young children to extremely stressful conditions. Research also indicates that supportive, responsive relationships with caring adults as early in life as possible can prevent or reverse the damaging effects of toxic stress response (Center on Developing Child, nd). By establishing clear lines of communication between adults and children, and home and school, parents and teachers can help to shape children’s perceptions in informed ways. During times of trouble, when emotions run high, parents and teachers can help children develop the skills necessary to manage their feelings, to confront unpleasant or adverse realities, and to acquire greater emotional stability. In order to support children in better understanding their world, adults may have to help them come to terms with circumstances that are frightening, confusing, overwhelming, or possibly unrelated to their past experience. By providing a safe and supportive environment and a healthy acceptance of all that is good in life, a calm and ready-to-listen adult can facilitate children’s well being, and help to alleviate the fear, dismay or confusion they may feel. In doing so, it is important to honor and nurture children’s sensitivity. Although parents and teachers cannot shelter children from all adversity, they are well positioned to help children learn about the imbalances in the world, to better comprehend their impact, and to find thoughtful ways to strike a comfortable and meaningful balance of their own (Foster & Matthews,

Resilience is often an indicator of future success as an adult and can help to protect children against emotional and behavioural problems etc

Some children may have a better disposition/character that may make them gain resilience a little easier, for those that don't have such an 'easy' nature, they may need a little more help to gain pse skills to help them build up their

Anxiety is the most common mental illness in young people in Australia (Blue, 2016). According to Beyond Blue, an online support clinic for anxiety and depression, on average, one in four Australians aged 12-24 are affected by anxiety (Blue, 2016). One in three women and one in five men are affected by this mental illness across Australia (Blue, 2016). According again, to Beyond Blue, in the short time of 12 months, over two million people are experiencing symptoms

Adults can help all children become resilient children by just being supportive parents. Parents must develop a caring relationship with the child. Being empathetic by attempting to validate and appreciate the child’s point of view on things. Having effectively communication and being an active listener. Giving the child the opportunity to respond in ways that avoid power struggles by not interrupting the child with how they supposed to feel. Making the child feel appreciated and special. Also, being a positive role model and receiving help from the community. This can also help the child gain their inner strength skills with confidence, critical thinking, self-control, responsibility and the positive outlook on things and participation.

As a Year 12 student in today’s society, anxiety disorders are notably problematic and an increasing issue. Anxiety is a crippling feeling of apprehensiveness and powerlessness; sometimes there is a sense of impending danger. Anxiety can interfere with an individual’s ability to carry out or take pleasure in certain aspects of their life. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental disorder in Australia.

First of all, there are many causes of anxiety. Anxiety may be caused by a mental condition, a physical condition, the effects of drugs, or a combination of these. Some common external causes are stress at work, school, in a relationship, from an emotional trauma, from a serious mental illness, from financial stress, and from taking drugs

Children in middle childhood can face situation that cause psychological stress on them. However, the child can build up resilience against such stress. A child’s temperament and master-oriented approaches towards situation can help because this allows the child to take a personal initiative to a problem rather than being a victim. The relationship between parent and child can play a factor. If there is a warm, loving relationship vs. a cold, neglecting relationship, the child is more likely to do better in a difficult situation. Another factor to building resilience is having the child have a non-family member adult as a support system. When there is another adult in the picture, the parents and child may feel less stress in a situation if

We need to work on and teach resilience skills as early as possible, at the first stage resilience development will improve with the help of the Childs parents/carers. parents are the most important people to help build their Childs resilience, children see their parents or carers more than anyone else during their early years, if they see their parents/carers coping with situations

While anxiety disorders seem to be among the most common of childhood disorders, most children with a diagnosable anxiety disorder are not receiving any assistance (Stallard et al., 2014). Further, many studies indicate that anxiety disorders in children do not tend to dissipate without treatment; rather, these disorders continue to affect a child’s well-being and functioning as they grow and can have negative consequences on school performance and social functioning in later years (Saavedra, Silverman, Morgan-Lopez & Kurtines, 2010). It appears that if effective interventions are not implemented to address diagnosable childhood anxieties, the symptoms can progressively become more severe and debilitating (Girling-Butcher & Ronan, 2009).

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.

Vulnerability and resilience among children continues to be a popular topic in research of developmental psychology. The two definitions are closely tied together as they are considered both sides to the spectrum. Schaffer (2006) defines vulnerability and resilience “as the susceptibility to develop malfunctioning following exposure to stressful life events, as opposed to the capacity to maintain competent functioning stress”. If stressful life events are the trigger here, why is it that some children are far more vulnerable, yet others are more resilient? The three studies discussed in this paper will attempt to explain why these differences occur and what can we do to enhance protective factors.

From research it is quite clear that the individual as well as various environmental aspects play an important role in influencing well-being as a whole. Research suggests that increased levels of emotional stress can often coincide with increasing issues in the family, peer groups and in the school. In addition, a child’s resilience and ability to cope with these issues can be affected by their personal

Next let us look at the psychodynamic explanation of generalized anxiety disorder. “Causes of” (2001) states the psychodynamic theory as defining anxiety as an alerting mechanism in response to unconscious motivations clashing with the constraints of the conscious mind. Benavidez (2009) states some children are more prone to generalized anxiety disorder because they are overrun by neurotic and/or moral anxiety.

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