School Anxiety

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

In one of the previous articles, we considered such a serious problem of today's schoolchildren as school neurosis and talked about one of the main components of this neurosis - the child's increased anxiety in relation to school. Let us now consider this problem in more detail.

It rarely happens that a child who is absolutely calm and cheerful in everyday life becomes anxious at school. School is often a specific stressor for a child, but usually this stress is superimposed on an already existing anxiety, that is, anxiety that has already formed in his parental family. However, we will consider the topic of the formation of anxiety in a child in the family in the next article, and now let's talk about exactly how this anxiety is formed by school, and what to do if a child has exactly school anxiety - anxiety associated with attending school, fear of getting a bad grade, ridicule and humiliation from teachers and classmates, etc.

Anxiety, in contrast to fear, is an emotional state often with an incomprehensible etiology, it is not very clear what exactly causes anxiety. Neither parents, nor teachers, nor the child himself can understand. Behind the anxiety, there are some specific fears: to get a bad grade, the fear that parents will be scolded for this bad grade. Moreover, this bad mark is not necessarily a two. One of the clients told me that as a child, her mother scolded and punished her (put her in a corner) for … fours. It seems monstrous, but this not quite adequate mother, insisted that her daughter did not receive any other marks, except for the fives.

Research shows that a child's anxiety level is directly related to their academic performance. Moreover, the highest level of anxiety - among the “poor”, among those who study for the “three”, it is much lower, and among the excellent students … it rises sharply again.

In this regard, the "average" turn out to be the most emotionally stable, the least susceptible to anxiety and disorders. If, at first glance, such a result seems surprising - it would seem that the better the child learns - the less reason he has to worry, however, if you think about it, then everything becomes clear. Losers and honors alike experience pressure from adults. Losers - must improve, teachers tell them about this, they are pressured by parents who feel shame and a feeling of their own inferiority (well, how can it be - I have such a child). Excellent students, on the other hand, must continue to "keep the brand" all the time, relax a little and get a three is unacceptable for them. Hence - a high level of tension, which is manifested in the formation of anxiety.

The second main reason a child develops school anxiety, in addition to the fear of getting a bad grade, is problems in relations with classmates and teachers. We have already analyzed this in an article about school neurosis -

Experiencing anxiety is a fairly common and completely normal state in a situation of uncertainty.

There are many such situations at school. I passed the test - and what grade they will give me, will they call me to the blackboard in this lesson or not, and have I forgotten to bring something to school or to do, etc. A person cannot be in a serene, blissful state all the time. In a situation of activity, decision-making, a certain level of anxiety, fear of failure is present, and this is a completely natural state for a person in such a situation. The point is that this anxiety does not become either excessive or chronic.

At school, the child learns to cope with anxiety. It can be explained to him that it is quite normal to feel some fear of the results of the test or, moreover, the exam, and all people, with rare exceptions, experience such fear. I must say that a small level of anxiety has a mobilizing effect. A person, in our case a schoolboy, copes better with a task if he is a little worried about the quality of its performance. With an indifferent attitude, the task is often performed poorly, or not at all.

However, if the level of anxiety becomes very high, it has an inhibitory effect on the psyche. A child, if his anxiety before school becomes excessively high - learns worse, loses motivation to study, he may develop symptoms of school neurosis.

The task of adults is to help the child understand his fears, what exactly and why he is afraid. And having understood, having spoken these fears with him, let him know that what he is afraid of is actually not so scary. That, firstly, he can always count on your support, and, secondly, if his fears really come true (two for the control), the consequences will not be as catastrophic as he imagines. That is, the two will need to be corrected, efforts must be made, but this is a completely feasible task, and you will help him in this. Deuce is not horror-horror-horror, but simply horror)

In general, support your child in a situation when he is experiencing severe anxiety. Help him cope with this anxiety. Let him talk and discuss his fears with you. And if you yourself cannot cope, there are many excellent child and adolescent psychologists who, with your help and the help of the child himself, are quite capable of coping with this task.