Assessment and treatment of anxiety in primary school children

Abstract

Anxiety, in excess, has been found to have a crippling and often debilitating effect on both adults and children. It can affect all aspects of their lives and can lead to psychiatric disorders. This study was initiated by the researcher's observation that more children of all ages, referred to her private practice, were suffering from high levels of anxiety than in previous years. A literature study was conducted into the phenomenon, anxiety, in order to establish: * the different types of anxiety; * the different theories of anxiety; * the development of anxiety in young children; * the effect anxiety has on primary school children generally and specifically on their emotional, sexual, social, cognitive and moral development; * the symptom formation and psychosomatic illness caused by anxiety; * the disorders of childhood and adolescence caused by anxiety; and * the means of assessing and treating anxiety in primary school children. The researcher then assembled a battery of standardised tests to assess anxiety in primary school children and devised a therapy, namely Hypno-p1ay therapy, to treat anxiety in primary school children. An idiographic study was then conducted on six primary school children, identified as suffering from high levels of anxiety. These children were assessed on the battery of tests, designed specifically to analyse their different types of anxiety, namely state and trait; general and test; free-floating and manifest; overt and covert and normal and neurotic. These results were then interpreted holistically, viewing the child within his life-world and attempting to make meaning of his anxiety within this context. Three of these children were then given Hypno-playtherapy on a regular basis for 8-12 sessions and were thereafter reassessed on two questionnaires, to ascertain whether their anxiety levels had been reduced by the therapy. Other aspects, such as causes and symptoms of anxiety, were also reviewed. Findings in the empirical investigation appear to confirm that anxiety can be identified in primary school children by means of a psychometric assessment, consisting of a variety of tests and can be treated uccessfully by Hypno-play therapy.