engleski

Stress and anxiety symptoms in children and adolescents: Searching For risk mechanisms

The study was an examination of the possible mechanisms of risk for the development of anxiety symptoms among children and adolescents. Stressful life events play an important and possibly etiological role in the onset of psychopathology symptoms in childhood and adolescence. Several studies have found life events to be positively correlated with symptoms of anxiety) correlations ranging from 0.20 to 0.30). The paper presents the results of an investigation carried out with the aim of determining specific (family, school, medical and war) life events and their subjective stress appraisal connected with the appearance of anxiety symptoms in children and adolescents. Eight anxiety aspects were included: separation anxiety, social anxiety, test anxiety, specific fears and phobias, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, worry scale, anxiety sensitivity, and somatization. The research was carried out on a sample of 350 pupils aged from 11 to 18 years. Data on age and sex were discussed as well. The results show that subjects who were exposed to different types of stressful life events experienced different aspects of anxiety symptoms. The obtained results confirm the theoretical hypothesis of stress and appraisal model in developmental psychopathology. The practical implications of the results were also discussed, particularly treatment schedules for children and adolescents.

stress; anxiety; children; adolescents

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