Identifying Profiles of Anxiety in Late Childhood and Exploring Their Relationship with School-Based Distress

The Effectiveness of School-Based Skills-Training Programs Reducing Performance or Social Anxiety: Two Randomized Controlled Trials

Background

Given that high levels of stress during adolescence are associated with negative consequences, it is important that adolescents with psychological needs are supported at an early stage, for instance with interventions at school. However, knowledge about the potential of school-based programs targeting adolescents with psychological needs, aimed at reducing school or social stress, is lacking.

Objective

The current study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of two targeted school-based skills-training programs, addressing either skills to deal with performance anxiety or social skills.

Methods

Two randomized controlled trials were performed with participants who self-selected to one of the programs. The sample comprised of N = 361 adolescents (M age = 13.99 years, SD = 0.83) from various educational levels and ethnic identity backgrounds. The performance anxiety program included N = 196 participants (N = 95 in the experimental group), while the social skills program included N = 165 participants (N = 86 in the experimental group). MANCOVA's were performed.

Results

The performance anxiety program had a small effect on reducing adolescents' test anxiety. Furthermore, for adolescents who attended more than half of the sessions, the program had small effects on reducing test anxiety and fear of failure. The program did not improve adolescents' coping skills or mental health. The social skills program was not effective in improving social skills, social anxiety, and mental health.

Conclusions

A relatively short, targeted program addressing skills to deal with performance anxiety can have the potential to reduce adolescents' performance anxiety.

Trial registration

International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (Netherlands Trial Register, number NTR7680). Registered 12 December 2018. Study protocol van Loon et al., (2019).

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10566-023-09736-x.

School educational models and child mental health among K-12 students: a scoping review

BACKGROUND

The promotion of mental health among children and adolescents is a public health imperative worldwide, and schools have been proposed as the primary and targeted settings for mental health promotion for students in grades K-12. This review sought to provide a comprehensive understanding of key factors involved in models of school education contributing to student mental health development, interrelationships among these factors and the cross-cultural differences across nations and societies.

METHODS

This scoping review followed the framework of Arksey and O'Malley and holistically reviewed the current evidence on the potential impacts of school-related factors or school-based interventions on student mental health in recent 5 years based on the PubMed, Web of Science, Embase and PsycExtra databases.

RESULTS/FINDINGS

After screening 558 full-texts, this review contained a total of 197 original articles on school education and student mental health. Based on the five key factors (including curriculum, homework and tests, physical activities, interpersonal relationships and after-school activities) identified in student mental development according to thematic analyses, a multi-component school educational model integrating academic, social and physical factors was proposed so as to conceptualize the five school-based dimensions for K-12 students to promote student mental health development.

CONCLUSIONS

The lessons learned from previous studies indicate that developing multi-component school strategies to promote student mental health remains a major challenge. This review may help establish appropriate school educational models and call for a greater emphasis on advancement of student mental health in the K-12 school context among different nations or societies.

School anxiety profiles in Spanish adolescents and their differences in psychopathological symptoms

School anxiety and psychopathological symptoms tend to co-occur across development and persist in adulthood. The present study aimed to determine school anxiety profiles based on Lang’s model of the triple response system (cognitive anxiety, psychophysiological anxiety, and behavioral anxiety) and to identify possible differences between these profiles in psychopathological symptoms (depression, hostility, interpersonal sensitivity, somatization, anxiety, psychoticism, obsessive-compulsive, phobic anxiety, and paranoid ideation). The School Anxiety Inventory (SAI) and the Symptom Assessment-45 Questionnaire (SA-45) were administered to 1525 Spanish students (49% girls) between 15 and 18 years old (M = 16.36, SD = 1.04). Latent Profile Analysis identified four school anxiety profiles: Low School Anxiety, Average School Anxiety, High School Anxiety, and Excessive School Anxiety. A multivariate analysis of variance revealed statistically significant differences among the school anxiety profiles in all the psychopathological symptoms examined. Specifically, adolescents with Excessive School Anxiety showed significantly higher levels of the nine psychopathological symptoms than their peers with Average School Anxiety and Low School Anxiety. In addition, the Excessive School Anxiety profile scored significantly higher in phobic anxiety than the High School Anxiety group. These findings allow to conclude that it is necessary enhance well-being and reduce psychopathology of those adolescents who manifest high and very high reactivity in cognitive, psychophysiological, and behavioral anxiety.

Hospital admissions for stress-related presentations among school-aged adolescents during term time versus holidays in England: weekly time series and retrospective cross-sectional analysis

BACKGROUND

Schools are a potential stressor for adolescents and may contribute to emergency hospital admissions.

AIMS

We describe rates of stress-related presentations (SRPs) among school-aged adolescents (11-17 years) during school terms and holidays, and explore differences by age and gender.

METHOD

Using national administrative hospital data, we defined an SRP as an emergency hospital admission with a primary diagnosis related to pain, psychosomatic symptoms (e.g. fatigue) or mental health problems, or with self-harm indicated in any diagnostic position. We estimated incidence rate ratios for weekly SRPs in term time versus holidays from 2014-2015 to 2017-2018, using negative binomial regression models, stratified by age and gender. We estimated the cumulative incidence of any SRP between 11 and 17 years by analysing prior hospital admission histories of adolescents with an SRP in 2017-2018.

RESULTS

Over the 4-year study period, 305 491 SRPs in 171 013 school-aged adolescents accounted for 31% of emergency admissions for this group. SRPs were predominantly for mental health problems or self-harm (38%), or pain (35%). Weekly admission rates for SRPs were higher in term time than holidays for all ages (age-specific incidence rate ratios were 1.15-1.49 for girls and 1.08-1.60 for boys). Rates were highest for girls aged 14 and 15 years. The estimated cumulative incidence of any SRP between 11 and 17 years was 7.9% for girls and 4.1% for boys.

CONCLUSIONS

Hospital admissions for SRPs are common among adolescents, affecting around two girls and one boy in every classroom. Higher rates in term time than holidays suggest that school factors may contribute.

Features of physical activity and school anxiety in pupils of the secondary general education school and the cadet corps

Relevance. The relevance of the study is due to the high significance of school anxiety in the formation of psychosomatic diseases and nervous disorders. Identification of risk factors for increased anxiety, one of which is low physical activity, is important for the timely organizing of preventive measures.The aim: to assess the characteristics of physical activity and school anxiety among schoolboys of secondary school and the cadet corps.Materials and methods. The observation group consisted of 47 schoolboys studying in a secondary general school at the age of 13–16; the comparison group consisted of 140 schoolboys of the cadet corps. The comparative assessment of physical activity bases on the analysis of the physical education implementation in educational organizations and the results of a survey according to the author’s questionnaire. A comparison was made of the parameters of bioimpedance analysis (BIA) of body composition, the content of cortisol and serotonin in the blood serum, and indicators of the Phillips school anxiety test.The results. Physical activity in the school system was limited to 3 hours per week, and in the additional education system there are only 14.9 % of schoolboys who devote 6–8 hours a week to sports, which is 3 times less than in the comparison group (46.4 %). Lower values of indicators of physical activity and body composition were found in secondary school boys relative to those in cadet corps (p = 0.015–0.038). The level of cortisol in the blood serum was 1.4 times higher, and the serotonin was 1.2 times less in schoolboys of the schools comparatively to cadets (p = 0.001–0.037). In secondary school schoolboys, relative to cadets, significantly 1.9–3.9 times more often increased values were recorded for the factor general anxiety at school, frustration of the need to achieve success, fear of self-expression, fear of the situation of testing knowledge, fear of not meeting the expectations of others, problems and fears in relations with teachers and general anxiety oppositely directed correlations of weak and moderate strength were established between the frequency and duration of physical education, BIA parameters, cortisol in the blood serum and factors of school anxiety.Conclusion. The values of the factors of school anxiety schoolboys of secondary general school are higher than in boys of the cadet corps and possibly they are associated with irregularity, relatively low duration of physical activity and the degree of development of metabolically active tissues.