Fear of school

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School fear describes various fears related to school . In addition to aspects such as self-image , attribution of school success, achievement motivation and learning techniques, they belong to the conditions of school success that are not dependent on intelligence . The younger the child, the more physical expressions of school anxiety in the form of stomach ache, headache or general malaise are to be expected. Other "forms of stress " such as biting your fingernails , wetting or sleeping disorders can be an expression of school anxiety.

School phobia is sometimes used synonymously, but it can also designate a specific sub-area.

Forms of school fears

The school-anxious pupil perceives the performance requirements or the social challenges of the school as an emotional threat.

The fear of achievement and exams can arise on the basis of excessive demands from teachers and / or parents, but also on the basis of unrealistic ambitions of the child himself. Failure to classify failures and mistakes as failures rather than learning aids and hints often contributes to the fact that a general anxiety develops into a fear of school.

Even if the performance anxiety is indirectly followed by a social appraisal anxiety, school anxiety can arise directly from social fears. Children with a social phobia with a smooth transition to shyness often find it difficult to come back to school. Over time, they usually manage to find a secure place in class, but often they remain very insecure in new situations.

On the other hand, concrete experiences of violence at school or on the way to school , bullying , insults by classmates or teachers and outsider experiences contribute to the development of school anxiety. The awareness and recognition of these childish needs is extremely important. This cannot be restricted by the fact that the individual child contributes to some unfortunate situations through their own behavior or sensitivity. The first task is to empower the child to face challenges that can be tackled independently and to consider together what they can do. On the other hand, the child should also be clearly protected against attacks, especially if they exceed the child's psychological powers. Otherwise there is a risk of considerable psychological damage, ranging from withdrawal behavior to aggressive behavior to suicide risk .

School phobia (the term is also used as a synonym for school anxiety) is the panic reaction to the school situation and with a strong tendency to refuse to attend school. In fact, it seems to have only superficially to do with school, but rather to be due to the family dynamics at home. The children often clearly cling to the mother or another attachment figure ( separation anxiety ICD 93.0, attachment theory ). Accordingly, it usually begins at kindergarten age or at the beginning of school. Another high point lies in early puberty . Childish concerns about the parents' marriage, the position in the sibling line or the strain on the child for parental functions can also be the cause of school-phobic behavior. The child often shows strong, physically colored reactions such as headache or abdominal pain and malaise. The children have a general tendency to be anxious or to be depressed. School phobia is the rarest form of school anxiety.

The truancy or the "truancy" has rarely fears about the cause. In most cases, the school situation, which is perceived as stressful, is avoided in favor of activities that promise to be more fun together with peer groups. Often the beginning is connected with adolescent conflicts, in which the credibility of the adult reactions and the position in the group are tested through tests of courage and "antisocial behavior".

Fear and performance

Contrary to popular belief, fear of performance or fear of failure only increases performance to a very limited extent. With a medium fear level, simple tasks are mastered better than with low or strong fear - this distribution is called the "inverted U-shaped distribution" (see Yerkes-Dodson law ). The more demanding the task, the more the lighter fear limits performance. In addition to excitement, failure-related thoughts and anxiety also seem to play a role (Schwarzer, 2000, p. 88 ff.). These impair performance significantly more than excitement and they have a less favorable effect on girls than on boys. One explanation is that any higher arousal limits prudence and the ability to make decisions . In this way, pressure to perform and high ambitions can generate the opposite of intent, namely school failure. Fear reduces task-related thoughts. Instead, these revolve around your own potential failure, which leaves less capacity for solving the tasks. The attempt to control the behavior of the student by means of threats or pressure is also in danger of undermining the intrinsic achievement motivation as well as the feeling of self-control and responsibility as an external (extrinsic) motivation .

Diagnosis

School anxiety is mainly diagnosed through questionnaires. Other methods (such as observation) have not proven to be as useful. One of the reasons for this is that (school) fear is an internal phenomenon that lies within the person. Early anxiety questionnaires were one-dimensional, i.e. understood as a uniform phenomenon. The “Anxiety Questionnaire for Schoolchildren” (AFS) already distinguishes between “manifest fear” and “test anxiety”. Today multidimensional perspectives are preferred. An example of a multi-dimensional questionnaire is the “differential performance anxiety inventory”, which uses twelve scales to diagnose four different areas: fear-inducing conditions, forms of manifestation, coping strategies and forms of stabilization.

  • exploration
  • 'School Anxiety Test' (SAT) by Erich Husslein
  • 'Anxiety Questionnaire for Schoolchildren' (AFS) by Wilhelm Wieczerkowski et al.
  • 'Differielles Leistungsangst Inventory' (DAI) by Detlef H. Rost & Franz J. Schermer

literature

  • Petersen, D. (2006): School phobia. In: Rost, DH (Hrsg.): Concise Dictionary Pedagogical Psychology. 3rd edition Weinheim: Beltz PsychologieVerlagsUnion.
  • Rost, DH & Schermer, FJ (2006): Performance anxiety. In: Rost, DH (Hrsg.): Concise Dictionary Pedagogical Psychology. Weinheim: Beltz PsychologieVerlagsUnion.
  • Schwarzer, R. (2000). Stress, anxiety and action regulation. (4th edition) Stuttgart: Kohlhammer.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Uwe Henrik Peters : Lexicon Psychiatrie, Psychotherapie, Medical Psychology, 6th edition, Elsevier, Urban & Fischer, 2007, ISBN 3-437-15061-8 , p. 497