Early Childhood Anxiety Research

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.

Separation anxiety is very common as children grow and develop. They may fear those few moments during daycare drop-off or that initial first meeting with a new babysitter. These children will often times grow out of this anxiety after they become familiar with their surroundings and caregivers. But, if they continue having these separation anxiety induced outbursts, even after they have been with a trusted caregiver for a time, parents and primary caregivers often worry about the well-being of their child and their child’s development. They may believe that their child has acquired a Separation Anxiety Disorder (SAD). I selected this topic because I work with multiple toddlers in a center and their parents have expressed some minor worry towards whether or not their child suffers with SAD or if this anxiety is causing them delays. I would love to be able to know some minor details about this broad topic and refer them to the website and articles that I found helpful when writing this report. This topic is important because it is has many symptoms that are similar to regular and developmentally appropriate separation anxiety. When a child suffers from SAD, it is something that needs attention by a pediatric professional in order for it not to affect the child later in life.

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.

Throughout life, both children and adults experience varying amounts of stress in their everyday lives. For the most part, this has been proven to be healthy and crucial in strengthening their response to such stimuli later in life. This paper will focus on the findings of various studies in which researchers have found links between stress exposure and childhood development. Specifically, this paper will focus on the effects of what is known as toxic stress and its effects on the development of a child and its role in the development of mental disorders as the child transitions into adulthood.

Adolescence is a difficult time period in a young person’s transition into their later stage of both physical and mental development. Mood disorders are often overlooked during this time for the brain becoming more developed; however among children, anxiety disorders seem to be the most common disorders to be experienced (Nelson; Israel, pg 112). Barlow (2002) defines anxiety as a future-oriented emotion that is characterized by the inability to be in control and predict future events that can be potentially dangerous to the individual. Anxiety shares commonalities with fear, but the difference between the two being that fear is the initial response made from a present threat, where anxiety is due to a unknown future event. A common

What are the apparent symptoms of anxiety in terms of physiological, behavioral, and cognitive indicators? If both a parent and a child experience anxiety in similar situations, how would you account for the influences of heredity, preparedness, and vicarious conditioning?

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).

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

Using a mechanical toy paradigm, researchers in Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital, London, UK, observed the reactions of children ages fourteen to nineteen months whose mother experienced stressful life events. There results reveal there is a positive correlation between the number of mother’s stressful events experienced and the Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery (Lab-TAB), with prenatal stress independently accounting for 10% of observed variance in fearfulness between stress exposed and non-exposed infants (Bergman, Sarkar, O’Connor, Modi, & Glover, 2007). Although other factors such as postnatal life events and prenatal smoking influence the temperament of the infant, prenatal stress ultimately plays a partial role in altering the temperament of the child. Thus, stress does help increase vulnerability to fear in infants that is prevented with a stress-free environment. In addition to a correlation between stress and altered temperaments in infants, there is a relationship between infant behaviors and the parents’ behavior towards the child that shapes the child later in life. A troublesome, fearful baby is harder to care for than an easy-going bright child. Therefore, the parent’s stress postnatally continues to create a tense environment in which the child survives. Additionally, other studies analyze the impact of PNMS in children’s behavior past

The purpose of this study is to look at the relationship between infant attachment styles and psychological wellbeing, with general anxiety as a measure of psychological wellbeing. This study will use an adult sample that will go through psychological tests to determine what attachment style each individual had when they were infants. After establishing their attachment styles their general anxiety levels will be tested. The results of these tests will help in establishing the relationship between the two variables. This study will have positive outcomes because it will improve existing information on this subject in psychology. This study could provide a better

Thesis Statement: Early Anxiety is stemmed from many factors, however the main cause of anxiety in adolescents is directly related to parenting and/or family influences.

Emotional and behavioural problems in early years can be classified in to two areas, which is internalising disorders and externalising disorders (Roz Walker, Monique Robinson, Jenny Adermann and Marilyn A. Campbell, 2014). Internalising disorders involves thought and feelings (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016). Children often show fears and worries in different situations (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016). Persistent of fear and worries may caused by anxiety or depression (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016). Anxiety and depression are the examples of internalising disorders. Externalising disorders involves disruptive behaviours (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016). For an example,

Children who are anxious will be hesitant to explore their surroundings. The can learn slower than the others, mainly because they are not exploring as the other children are. For a child who is anxious, they require special attention They need constant reassurance. Most anxious children could learn to feel safer and comfortable in their surroundings. I believe that even though

In Asian countries children who have diagnosed with anxiety are over looked with academic achievement which is highly valued familial and social norm. Children feeling worry, dread and tension that conclude with testing situation can also lead a child to anxiety. Children that suffer from anxiety can also be caused at home whether parents are divorce or any arguments that children might see, can cause anxiety. Anxiety causes in all individuals that have trouble processing certain life situations or physical

A risk that is faced by middle school children is anxiety disorders. While anxiety is a normal part of childhood, and children may go through phases when they are more anxious than usual. But ongoing anxiety can impair learning and negatively affect how children interact with their environment (Rogers, 2017, p. 257). Children can experience one or more types of anxiety problems such as social anxiety disorder, separation anxiety disorder, panic disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder and phobia (p. 257 – 258).