Emotional And Social Performance Of Children With Anxiety Disorders

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.

Behavioral inhibition in children is often linked to the development of social anxiety disorders because it encompasses the likelihood of a child experiencing distress and withdrawal from unfamiliar situations and various stimuli. However, several researchers have indicated that assisting the children to become confident in social environments can become helpful in ensuring they get over the condition. Children with this condition are said to feel anxious and fearful when around strange people, environs, or even situations, hence withdrawing. In fact, they can also stop what they were doing once they notice that they are in an unfamiliar position. Whereas it is observed that some of the children continue to exhibit steady behavioral inhibition, some show more different tendencies as they grow up into adulthood (Frenkel et al., 2015).

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).

Social anxiety disorder (SAD), also know as social phobia, affects between 1.6% and 4.0% of children. Like other anxiety disorders, girls are more likely to be diagnosed with SAD than boys (Chavira & Stein, 2002). The defining features of SAD are excessive self-consciousness that is more than just common shyness. Individuals with SAD fear social or performance situations where they may face scrutiny or humiliation. The two subtypes of SAD are generalized and non-generalized. Approximately 75% of individuals with SAD experience the generalized type, which is characterized by experiencing distress in almost all social situations. Non-generalized SAD is characterized by experiencing anxiety in only one or two types of interpersonal situations, like public speaking. Generalized social anxiety disorder has high comorbidity with major depression, generalized anxiety disorder, specific phobias, and ADHD. Non-generalized SAD however has low comorbidity with other disorders. Children with selective mutism have a significantly high comorbidity rate with SAD, about 97% to 100% (Chavira & Stein, 2005).

Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent of psychiatric disorders, yet less than 30% of individuals who suffer from anxiety disorders seek treatment (Lepine, 2002). Anxiety disorder refers to a group of mental illnesses that includes generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), social anxiety disorder also called social phobia and specific phobias (Anxiety Disorders Association of America, 2014). In the United States studies find that anxiety disorders afflict 15.7 million people in the United States each year, and 30 million people in the United States at some point in their lives (Lepine, 2002). Research as shown that 30% of girls suffer from anxiety

An anxiety disorder is described as the occurrence of anxiety without an obvious external cause that affects daily functioning. It occurs in four major forms panic disorder, phobic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. In a research study by Phillip Kendall in 1994, an investigation on psychosocial treatment with forty-seven children aged nine to thirteen with anxiety disorders was done. Kendall felt this particular study was important because adults were mostly likely to seek help for the child who behaves aggressively while overlooks the child that showed inadequate social skills. Mostly due to the fact that children were normally anxious about several aspects of life and saw anxiousness as part of a regular function in their children. Though anxiety is a natural process in children it becomes a serious issue when it negatively impacts a child development and in turns causes psychological distress for the child as they progress into adulthood. In Kendall 's study, he compared a sixteen session cognitive-behavioral treatment group with a

All children experience some type of anxiety. For example, when a child is left alone at preschool for the first time, many children will show distress. Another example could be when a child has his or her own room, this could develop a fear of the dark. Now normally these aren’t problems but, such anxiety could become a problem when it interrupts a child’s normal activities, like attending school and making friends or sleeping. Persistent or intense anxiety that disrupts daily routine is a mental health problem that requires attention.

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health illness that affect children and the amount of children affected by this mental illness has increased considerably in the past century. However, the amount of children that actually get treatment is drastically low, leaving children to deal with their fears and worries by themselves. The children who deal with anxiety are overcome with fear and worry and are constantly dismissed as acting out for attention because people are unaware of how serious anxiety can affect children. Anxiety plagues children and can affect them for their entire life if not treated. In order to make sure these suffering children get the care they need, there needs to be more emphasis on anxiety disorders. Childhood anxiety disorders affect the child and the people involved in the child’s life, yet there is not enough treatment or awareness in today’s society.

Kids that had been chosen either had separation anxiety disorder (SAD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), social phobia (SOP), or specific phobia (SP). However if the child had an IQ of eighty-five or below they were excluded from the research, other exclusions included that the child must have a good command in Dutch language, must not have any serious diseases or substance abuses disorders, or psychotic disorders. Also children with OCD and panic disorders were excluded because CBT does not normally help these problems anyway. The final subjects consisted of one hundred and forty-two children, ages eight to twelve with anxiety disorders, one hundred twenty-three mothers and one hundred and eight fathers.

It has been argued that social anxiety disorder may be multifaceted though it is not seen as so in the DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Some researchers believe that social interaction and performance anxiety are two separate facets of social anxiety disorder (Weeks, 2014, p. 298). According to Weeks (2014), there have been studies that show there may be as many as three different facets which would consist of performance, observational, and social interaction fears (p. 298). There are other studies that state social anxiety disorder is not multifaceted because performance and social interaction anxiety both fit into a single factor (Weeks, 2014, p. 298). The DSM-5 has a performance only specifier, but that does not necessarily mean that social anxiety disorder is multifaceted because it may have been added to help focus on the specific situation at which the anxiety is occurring (American Psychiatric Association,

In regards to counseling children with social anxiety, counselors must be aware of the resources around them to benefit their practices. One theory that can assist a professional is Erikson’s Personality Theory. This theory targets the aspects of an individual’s feelings towards self and others. Furthermore, Erikson’s theory focuses on the maturity and decline in the child’s thought process, motor skills, and other behaviors effecting their attitudes, behaviors, and needs (Broderick & Blewitt, 2015, p. 11). Broderick and Blewitt (2015) study the stages of Erikson’s theory and how the stages range from birth to late adulthood. If a counselor is working with children between the ages three and 13 years old, that counselor will investigate the

In this paper, I am going to talk about anxiety disorders according to the article which I read. Anxiety disorders are very common problem in childhood and often seen as normal in development. However, since these problems may have negative influence on child’s development and on their families, professional intervention can be necessary in some cases. Children can show fear as reactions to threats in the environment. In the beginning, this would be normal, but if these fears and anxieties intensify and persist, they can turn into phobias. I mean, like other disorders anxiety disorders also tend to be chronic without treating properly. There are several scientifically proven and effective treatments for children.

This literature review is conducted to explore the social anxiety disorder, its Etiology, prevalence and finally putting focus on the need of a special treatment for adolescent with social anxiety disorder. Anxiety problems are the most common and widespread mental issues and are an area of interest for the medical as well as psychology researchers. These disorders are related to excess fear and anxiety and associated behavioural problems, where an

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

According the Phal et al (2012) there is three characteristics that contribute to a child developing an anxiety disorder. They include: Behavioural inhibition, parental psychopathology and parenting stress. Though the article also states in its limitations that other attributes to consider is a child’s “happiness, resilience and positive coping” (Pahl et al, 2012, p 318). The exploration