Anxiety in Children

According to TDK, anxiety; Sadness has been defined as a state of tension of unknown origin that occurs with worrying thoughts. In the Dictionary of Psychology Terms developed by TDK, anxiety; It is characterized as unsettling feelings and thoughts that appear when a strong desire or impulse seems to be unable to reach its goal.

There are two types of anxiety in human life, which we can classify as normal and pathological. Normal anxiety is death, illness, failure, separation, etc. that occur in the flow of daily life. It is a type of anxiety that arises from situations and also begins in situations that have not been experienced before. The situation that occurs when the person cannot sustain or carry this so-called normal anxiety or starts to identify this anxiety as dangerous, is defined as the situation that occurs when the person frequently resorts to the defense mechanisms. While normal anxiety has an aspect that increases the motivation of the person, pathological anxiety reduces the quality of life and affects the person negatively in terms of psychophysiology.

Fear and anxiety are often confused with each other. There are important and distinct differences between them. Fear is an affect and reaction that occurs when a consciously identified danger occurs. We can talk about the source of fear, as in the example of “I am afraid of dogs”. Anxiety, on the other hand, is a reaction to unknown, uncertain, objectless dangers.

There are some concerns that arise from infancy. For example, separation, death, castration (castration, circumcision), extinction anxiety are the anxieties seen and expected to occur in children, but these anxieties are expected to fade away in the future. For example, while the anxiety that children between the ages of 1-2 show towards separation from their mothers is considered natural, it is not considered natural for such a situation to occur before adolescence or adolescence. Anxiety in children and adolescents is generally related to academic, social and physical issues.

There are anxieties that arise at various ages, they differ according to the characteristics of the age. In the first years, the anxiety of separating from the mother, gaining the love of the mother and father, not being able to find friends in primary school periods, and not being successful in the lessons occur. In adolescence, there are concerns about making close friends, belonging to a group, being nice to the opposite sex, and changes in the body. Anxiety is most intense in the first 2 years and adolescence years. Factors such as increasing expectations from life in proportion to age, adding the level of reality and responsibilities are seen as the reasons for increased anxiety in adolescence. At the same time, anxiety levels are more common in girls depending on gender. Regarding the reason for this, the researchers think that it may be due to the fact that girls are more emotional.

Other factors affecting the level of anxiety are factors such as parental attitudes, socio-economic structure, number of siblings, education and job levels of parents, and academic status of the child. If the child is exposed to harsh, critical and humiliating attitudes, psychologically it prepares the ground for anxiety. Factors such as the number of siblings cause the child not to meet the basic love and trust needs sufficiently and to have problems with the new sibling. A low socioeconomic level causes the child’s basic needs not to be met and causes feelings such as tension and distress in the home, and this situation may cause the child to be worried about maintaining life.

The child’s frequent encounters with various difficulties and reward punishments in his academic life, for example, the presence of direct or indirect statements such as “I will buy you a gift if you pass the class, “I will not give you pocket money if you get a poor grade” may cause the child to become sensitive about success and create anxiety in this area.

In the basic healthy development of the child, it is important that the social and emotional needs of the child are met as well as their physical and mental development. In emotional development based on love, the parent-child relationship has a very anxiety-relieving importance.

Although it has a basic function to protect the child from danger, it is still a basic step for him to cope with the problems he encounters and to continue his life in harmony.

Anxious attitudes and behaviors from birth to adulthood should not be exhibited by parents. Statements such as “you will fall, get injured, have an accident, be beaten, cannot go-you cannot go, etc.” cause the child to perceive the outside world as dangerous and to deteriorate coping strategies. Instead of this situation, being more supportive and inclusive, adopting a solution-oriented attitude rather than a problem-oriented one will calm the child’s anxiety.

Attitudes such as frequent comparisons, showing others as examples, forcing what they cannot do, lead to a tendency to feel alienated from school and to see oneself as worthless. Seeing the child’s competencies and praising the areas he is good at and using motivating sentence patterns such as “you can do better” in his inadequacies cause positive effects on anxiety.

The most important thing is to remember that anxiety about the unknown is an extremely sensitive quality. Children love surprises, but they can be very anxious when faced with unprepared situations. It is important to inform the child during relocation, migration, school change, caregiver, hospital and doctor visits. Discourses made to gloss over, lie and save the day damage the sense of trust in children. While conveying difficult news such as divorce and death, it is very important to express the truth as it is, but to emphasize our feelings.