At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
Describe cognitive-behavioral anxiety management strategies for young children as well as describe developmentally appropriate descriptions of how anxiety impacts young children.
Describe parent and teacher perspectives of an anxiety management intervention for young children and discuss parent and teacher views of how young children experience anxiety and stress.
Describe anxiety management strategies for young children and present these strategies to groups of children and evaluate their perceptions and their teachers' perceptions of the worry strategies workbook (intervention).
Brief Abstract Summary: This presentation will provide information about three pilot studies to evaluate parent and teacher perceptions of an anxiety management intervention for elementary school-aged children. This intervention features cognitive-behavioral strategies to help children prevent and manage feelings of stress and anxiety. Additionally, a pilot study was conducted in a Montessori setting, where third graders taught first and second graders in mixed age classrooms. The intervention was successful and teachers and children enjoyed learning the anxiety or stress management strategies and would use them in the future. Teachers and many of the parents said children faced adult worries and that they needed to understand ways to reduce their feelings of worry so that they could power through anxiety and have fun at home and learn and grow in the classroom. This presentation will describe the intervention and provide insights into sources of anxiety for young children to inform the field.
Detailed abstract description: This presentation will review ways anxiety impacts young children, in the early elementary school years. In addition, another primary purpose was to determine teachers’ and parent’s perceptions of an anxiety management booklet presenting cognitive behavioral strategies to assist young children (between 5 and 10 years) in managing their anxiety. Results of a pilot study implementing the anxiety management intervention in a Montessori, mixed-age classroom also will be presented. The results of three pilot studies are reviewed, one presents ideas from teachers, another presents parent views, and a third is the demonstration study, which was implemented in the elementary school setting. Forty parents and teachers have responded to interviews assessing their conceptualization of how anxiety and stress impact young children, and they provided perceptions about anxiety prevention strategies presented in an interactive book (with places for drawing and writing) for young children. The book presents cognitive-behavioral anxiety management strategies for young children, including breathing, relaxing, positive imagery, distraction, and taking to others. The book begins with a developmentally appropriate explanation of anxiety, which parents and teachers felt was appropriate for children. Impressions of the strategies in the manual were favorable. Imagining a superhero to assist with anxiety coping was a new strategy for parents and teachers, whereas distraction and breathing were known, to both groups, with breathing being commonly used by parents and teachers. They liked the “taking to an adult” strategy. They appreciated the idea of pushing pause on worries to generate a coping strategy, if the worry went so high that it was uncomfortable for children. There is a coping menu at the end of the manual where children record their favorite strategies –to have everything on one page they can refer to when they need cues to use their favorite strategies. This pilot study was implemented in a Montessori school, in mixed age classrooms, with third grade children as co-leaders, helping the first and second grade children learn the anxiety management strategies and decide on their favorite strategies to use if they needed to relieve stress. Teachers at the Montessori setting reported that they would use the anxiety book, and the coping menu at the end of the book. This menu allows children to personalize their strategies to have them ready to use in the future. Children were easily able to understand the strategies and discuss how they would implement them and tailor them to their needs as they completed the book. In the future, having children rate their favorite strategies and assessing coping of children as well as their use of the strategies will provide valuable information for the field. Moreover, prevention of anxiety in childhood is a prevention strategy that can reduce mental health concerns for years to come, improving the well-being of children.
