UNDERSTANDING STUDENT STRESS AND COPING IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: A MIXED-METHOD, LONGITUDINAL STUDY

The Effect of Online-Delivered Guided Imagery Relaxation on Stress and Well-Being of Primary School Children

Background

In the context of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, effectively coping with daily stressors is crucial for children who experience restrictions on physical movement and social activities. We examined the effects of the online-delivered guided imagery relaxation (GIR) technique on the stress and well-being of primary school children.

Methods

Thirty-four (N = 34) 11-year-old students were randomly assigned to either intervention (n = 17) or waitlist-control (n = 17) groups. The participants from the intervention group were required to attend a 4-week online GIR session and practice the techniques daily for 5 min-10 min. The Stress in Children (SiC) questionnaire, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire-Parent Reported (SDQ-PR) and tracking form were administered pre- and post-intervention.

Results

Eleven (64.7%) participants attended all sessions and eight (47.0%) completed daily practices. Mixed-model ANOVA indicated no significant difference between participants from intervention and waitlist-control groups across pre- and post-intervention time points, with P-values greater than 0.05 for stress and well-being.

Conclusion

Issues regarding online intervention, including managing children's activities from a distance, Internet connectivity, and time limitations might have affected their adherence and the research outcome. Nonetheless, the online-delivered GIR technique is a promising intervention modality. However, its implementation should be improvised to be more impactful.

Adolescent stress, help-seeking intentions, subjective achievement and life satisfaction in New Zealand: Tests of mediation, moderated mediation and moderation

We present the results of a study examining adolescent help-seeking intentions (HSIs), stress, subjective school achievement and life satisfaction. Using a cross-sectional design with a sample of New Zealand adolescents (n = 1601), we tested whether HSIs could mediate or moderate relations between stress and subjective achievement, and between stress and life satisfaction. We inspected these dynamics alongside different help sources (informal and formal) and domains where stress might be experienced (school and personal). Using mediation testing, findings suggest that informal HSIs have at least some influence on the relations between stress and well-being indicators, whereas formal HSIs did not. Conditional indirect effects for the mediation models (moderated mediation) revealed that gender and age did not moderate the relations between stress and informal HSIs, or between stress and well-being indicators with one exception: gender moderated the relation between personal stress and informal HSIs. In most models, tests of moderation lent support for a protective-reactive model in which HSIs reduce the adverse effects of stress on well-being indicators. Discussion focuses on modelling and promoting help-seeking activities across diverse support sources, and doing so earlier in life so that adolescents can benefit from well-honed coping strategies.

Stress and Learning in Pupils: Neuroscience Evidence and its Relevance for Teachers

Our understanding of how stress affects primary school children's attention and learning has developed rapidly. We know that children experience differing levels of stressors (factors that cause stress) in their environments, and that this can influence how they respond to new stressors when they occur in educational contexts. Here, we review evidence showing that stress can increase children's attention and learning capacities in some circumstances but hinder them in others. We show how children differ in their attention and learning styles, dependent on stress levels: for example, more highly stressed children may be more distracted by superficial features and may find it harder to engage in planning and voluntary control. We review intervention research on stress management techniques in children, concentrating on psychological techniques (such as mindfulness and stress reappraisal), physiological techniques (such as breathing exercises) and environmental factors (such as reducing noise). At the current time, raising teachers' awareness of pupils' differing stress responses will be an important step in accommodating the differing needs of children in their classrooms.

Girls suffer: the prevalence and predicting factors of emotional problems among adolescents during upper secondary school in Norway

This longitudinal, quantitative survey examined factors predicting 1077 Norwegian adolescents` emotional problems during Upper Secondary School (grades I–III, approximately 16–19 years old) considering the following research question: “To what extent do students in Upper Secondary School experience emotional problems, and how are these problems predicted by gender, academic/social self-concept, coping beliefs, appearance pressure and school stress?”. The mentioned variables were scrutinized through analysis of frequencies, zero order correlations and structural equation modeling. Results verified previous findings that there was an increase in emotional problems for adolescents, especially among girls. Furthermore, the study results indicate that coping beliefs is a crucial factor when it comes to the perception of pressure and stress, and the subsequent development of emotional health problems.

Regulieren exekutive Funktionen und die emotionale Kontrolle die Stresssymptomatik zwischen dritter und fünfter Klasse?

Zusammenfassung. In dieser Studie wurde der Einfluss kognitiver und emotionaler Regulationsfertigkeiten auf psychische Stresssymptome von Schulkindern untersucht. Möglich wäre ein direkter Einfluss der Regulationsfertigkeiten auf Stresssymptome oder ein indirekter Einfluss mediiert über die Schulleistungen. Bei 177 Drittklässler_innen wurden bis zum Halbjahr der fünften Klasse die psychische Stresssymptomatik, die exekutiven Funktionen, die emotionale Kontrolle sowie die Mathematik- und Deutschnoten erfasst. Es zeigte sich, dass die individuelle psychische Stresssymptomatik sich heterogen veränderte, die exekutiven Funktionen nahmen jedoch weder direkt noch indirekt signifikanten Einfluss auf die psychische Stresssymptomatik oder deren Veränderung. Auch der Einfluss der emotionalen Kontrolle auf die psychische Stresssymptomatik erwies sich als gering.