FACTORS INFLUENCING THE OCCURRENCE OF ANXIETY LEVELS IN CHILDHOOD AND COPING STRATEGIES
Abstract
Anxiety disorders in childhood constitute a serious phenomenon nowadays, as they impede academic and social functioning, such as school performance, social-emotional development and interaction with the family environment. In order to minimize or overcome abnormal stress, children may develop several coping strategies. The current study examined the occurrence of anxiety disorders in childhood, as well as the use of coping strategies in relation to various demographic data. 461 students of 5th and 6th Primary School Grade participated in the study which was conducted in urban and suburban areas of Greece. Two scales were used: a) The Spence’s Anxiety Scale (SCAS), which examines anxiety disorders in childhood and b) Brodzinsky’s Coping Scale for Children and Youth, which detects stress coping strategies. The results showed that gender and the educational level of the mother were significantly related to both of these concepts, whilst age was related to anxiety disorders.
Article visualizations:
Keywords
References
Alfano, C. A., Ginsburg, G. S., & Kingery, J. N. (2007). Sleeprelated problems among children and adolescents with anxiety disorders. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 46, 224-232.
Allen, J. L., Lavallee, K. L., Herren, C., Ruhe, K., & Schneider, S. (2010). DSM-IV criteria for childhood separation anxiety disorder: Informant, age, and sex differences. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 24, 946-952.
American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). Arlington: American Psychiatric Association.
American Psychiatric Association, (2004). Diagnostic Criteria DSM-IV-TR. (C. Gotzamanis, transl.). Athens: Litsas’ Medical Publication.
Aronowitz, M. (1984). The Social and emotional adjustment of immigrant children: A review of the literature. International Migration Review, 18(2), 237-257.
Becker, E. S., Rinck, M., Turke, V., Kause, P., Goodwin, R., Neumer, S., & Margraf, J. (2007). Epidemiology of specific phobia subtypes: Findings from the Dresden Mental Health Study. European Psychiatry, 22(2), 69-74.
Ben-Zur, H. (2009). Coping styles and affect. International Journal of Stress Management, 16(2), 87-101.
Bernstein, G. A., Borchardt, C. M., & Perwien, A. R. (1996). Anxiety disorders in children and adolescents: A review of the past 10 years. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 35(9), 1110-1119.
Biederman, J., Petty, C. R., Spencer, T. J., Wood Worth, K. Y., Bhide, P., Zhu, J., & Faraone, S. V. (2013). Examining the nature of the comorbidity between pediatric attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 128(1), 78-87.
Billings, A. G., & Moos, R. H. (1981). The role of coping responses and social resources in attenuating the stress of life events. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 4, 139-157. doi:10.1007/BF00844267
Breinholst, S., Esbjorn, B. H., Reinholdt-Dunne, M. L., & Stallard, P. (2012). CBT for the treatment of child anxiety disorders: A review of why parental involvement has not enhanced outcomes. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 26, 416-424.
Brodzinsky, D. M., Elias, M. J., Steiger, C., Simon, J., Gill, M., & Hitt, J. C. (1992). Coping Scale for Children and Youth: Scale development and validation. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 13, 195-214.
Camisasca, E., Caravita, S. C. S., Milani, L., & Di Blasio, P. (2012). The children’s coping strategies Checklist-Revision1: A validation Study in the Italian population. TPM, 19(3), 197-218.
Carver, C. S., & Connor-Smith, J. (2010). Personality and coping. Annual Review of Psychology, 61, 679-704.
Carver, C., Scheier, M., & Weintraub, J. (1989). Assessing coping strategies: a theoretically based approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56(2), 267-283.
Doerfler, L. A., Connor, D. F., Volungis, A. M., & Toscano, P. F. (2007). Panic disorder in clinically referred children and adolescents. Child Psychiatry Human Development, 38, 57-71. doi 10.1007/s10578-006-0042-5
Ebata, A. T., & Moos, R. H. (1991). Coping and adjustment in distressed and healthy adolescents. Journal of Applied and Developmental Psychology, 12, 33-54.
Eschenbeck, H., Kohlmann, C. W., & Lohaus, A. (2007). Gender differences in coping strategies in children and adolescents. Journal of Individual Differences, 28, 18-26. doi:10.1027/1614-0001.28.1.18
Fedorowicz, A. E. (1995). Children’s Coping Questionnaire (CCQ): Development and factor structure. Master’s Thesis. National Library of Canada.
Fields, L., & Prinz, R. J. (1997). Coping and adjustment during childhood and adolescence. Clinical Psychology Review, 17(8), 937-976.
Frydenberg, E., & Lewis, R. (1993). Boys play sport and girls turn to
others: age, gender, and ethnicity as determinants of coping.
Journal of Adolescence, 16, 253–266.
Garnefski, N., Rieffe, C., Jellesma, F., Terwogt, M. M., & Kraaij, V. (2007). Cogniti-ve emotion regulation strategies and emotional problems in emotional pro-blems in 9-11-year-– old children. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 16(1), 1-9. doi: 10.1007/s00787-006-0562-3.
Gary, W. E., & Pilyoung, K. (2013). Childhood poverty, chronic stress, self-regulation, and coping. Child Development Perspectives, 7(1), 43-48.
Katsillis, J. M. (2006). Επαγωγική Στατιστική εφαρμοσμένη στις κοινωνικές επιστήμες και την εκπαίδευση (1η έκδ.) [Inferential Statistics in social sciences and education]. Athens: Gutenberg.
Katsillis, J. M. (2005). Περιγραφική Στατιστική εφαρμοσμένη στις κοινωνικές επιστήμες και την εκπαίδευση (5η έκδ.) [Descriptive Statistics in social sciences and education]. Athens: Gutenberg.
Keeley, M. L., & Storch, E. A. (2009). Anxiety disorders in youth. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 24(1), 26-40.
Kendall, P. C., Compton, S. N., Walkup, J. T., Birmaher, B., Albano, A. M., Sherrill, J., Ginsburg, G., Rynn, M., McCracken, J., Gosch, E., Keeton, C., Bergman, L., Sakolsky, D., Suveg, C., Iyengar, S., March, J., & Piacentini, J. (2010). Clinical characteristics of anxiety disordered youth. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 24, 360-365.
Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. New York: Springer.
Legerstee, J. S., Garnefski, N., Jellesma, F. C., Verhulst, F. C., & Utens, E. M. (2010). Cognitive coping and childhood anxiety disorders. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 19, 143-150.
Mellon, R. C., & Moutavelis, A. G. (2007). Structure, developmental course, and correlates of children’s anxiety disorder-related behavior in a Hellenic community sample. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 21, 1-21. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2006.03.008
Merill, A. (2012). Anxiety and Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Retrieved May 30, 2016, from
https://www.iidc.indiana.edu/pages/anxiety-and-autism-spectrum-disorders.
Neitzel, C., & Stright, D. A. (2004). Parenting behaviours during child problem solving: The roles of child temperament, mother education and personality, and the problem-solving context. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 28(2), 166-179.
Pereda, N., Forns, M., Kirchner, T., & Munoz, D. (2009). Use of the Kidcope to identify socio-economically diverse Spanish school-age children’s stressors and coping strategies. Child: Care, Health and Development, 35(6), 841-850.
Rapee, R. M., Schniering, C. A., & Hudson (2009). Anxiety disorders during childhood and adolescence: Origins and treatment. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 5, 311-341.
Richards, M. M., & Steele, R. G. (2007). Children’s self-reported coping strategies: The role of defensiveness and repressive adaptation. Anxiety, Stress, and Coping, 20(2), 209-222. doi: 10.1080/10615800701303298
Riedford, K. (2010). Recognizing anxiety disorders in children and adolescents. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 6(9), 727-728.
Roecker, C. E., Dubow, E. F., & Donaldson, D. (1996) Cross-situational patterns in children’s coping with observed interpersonal conflict. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 25, 288–299.
Sandler, I. N., Tein, J. Y., & West, S. G. (1994). Coping, stress, and the psychological symptoms of children of divorce: A cross-sectional and longitudinal study. Child Development, 65, 1744-1763.
Spence, S. H. (1998). A measure of anxiety symptoms among children. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 36, 545-566.
Spence, S. H. (1997). Structure of anxiety symptoms among children: A confirmatory factor-analytic study. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 106(2), 280-297.
Topolski, T. D., Hewitt, J. K., Eaves, L. J., Silberg, J. L., Meyer, J. M., Rutter, M., Pickles, A., & Simonoff, E. (1997). Genetic and environmental influences on child reports of manifest anxiety and symptoms of separation anxiety and overanxious disorders: A community- based twin study. Behavior Genetics, 27(1), 15-28.
Vallance, A., & Garralda, E. (2008). Anxiety disorders in children and adolescents. Clinical Syndromes, 7(8), 325-330.
Whiteside, S. P. H., Gryczkowski, M., Ale, C. M., Brown-Jacobsen, A. M., & McCarthy D. M. (2013). Development of child- and parent-report measures of behavioral avoidance related to childhood anxiety disorders. Behavior Therapy 44, 325-337.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejse.v0i0.989
Copyright © 2015 - 2023. European Journal of Special Education Research (ISSN 2501 - 2428) is a registered trademark of Open Access Publishing Group. All rights reserved.
This journal is a serial publication uniquely identified by an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) serial number certificate issued by Romanian National Library (Biblioteca Nationala a Romaniei). All the research works are uniquely identified by a CrossRef DOI digital object identifier supplied by indexing and repository platforms.
All the research works published on this journal are meeting the Open Access Publishing requirements and can be freely accessed, shared, modified, distributed and used in educational, commercial and non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
