Anxiety: Supporting pupil mental health in practice
Written By: Author(s): Victoria Cook
5 min read
Vic Cook, Education and Research Project Specialist, Chartered College of Teaching
Anxiety can be a normal, temporary and productive reaction to things we find stressful. Research suggests that from a young age, children commonly experience certain fears at different ages, such as a fear of ghosts at the age of six (Seven, 2008). However, when anxiety is constant, overwhelming or out of proportion it shouldn’t be ignored.
Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health disorders experienced across the lifespan (Kessler et al., 2005) and the most common mental health disorder in children and adolescents (Packer and Pruitt, 2010). Furthermore, several studies have demonstrated the impact of COVID-19 on feelings of anxiety amongst young people, with young people with pre-existing mental health difficulties, special educational needs, and neurodevelopmental disorders particularly affected (Waite et al., 2022). Children with anxiety disorders are more likely than the
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References
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Thank you for this. We have a lot of parents raising concerns about anxiety in their children and this provides some concrete guidance. I liked the guidance on different types of coping strategies and the consequences. For example the temporary relief of avoidance can lead to further anxiety.