Child health in school depends on the experiences they undergo in their day-to-day life that may cause anxiety and stress, effects that would affect their psychological well-being, cause trauma, and influence a child’s overall performance in school. It is, therefore, essential to create a structure that improves student mental health and prevents any possible psychological harm that is likely to affect the child in adulthood. Anxiety in a school setting is a sense of fear and stress that occurs when students undergo traumatic experiences that may increase and threaten their overall well-being (Anniko et al., 2019). Children may repeatedly undergo practical stress because of examinations, shooting in a school, or other events that prevent the individual’s ability to concentrate and act appropriately toward academic success.
Stress in school can result from emotional trauma because events and occurrences can create positive or negative impacts on children when they lack the necessary counteractive actions to manage stress in the school environment. Positive stress can occur because of anxiety about interacting with new friends and changing the environment to a new school. Negative stress occurs when students have to manage dreadful school events like fires and accidents and stressful events like examinations (Abrams, 2022). Children can experience anxiety in school because of the fear that they need to attain perfection in their work. They would also remain stressed after managing the urge to cope with a new environment away from their family because of separation from parents and close friends. The child may feel it challenging to concentrate in class or perform poorly because of concentration issues.
Children are likely to undergo anxiety and stress that may affect their comfort and mental well-being. The effects of stress and anxiety may multiply if the school administration lacks the necessary stress management infrastructure needed to help students overcome stressful instances and anxiety. Some of these stressful instances are related to anxiety, as students struggle with social anxiety, selective mutism, generalized anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (Anniko et al., 2019). Multiple phobias also occur because of things like animals, heights, or other things in school that, when not identified, would cause traumatic psychological effects. These stressful occurrences can affect individual mental health and their ability to concentrate, focus, succeed, and perform appropriately in school.
The different types of anxiety that affect student performance because of poor mental well-being, improper concentration, and inappropriate focus involve worries that make the children uncomfortable in school. Some children can feel uncomfortable and worried when separating from their caregivers and therefore have difficulty learning in school depending on their level of attachment with the people they separate with as they leave for school ((Paulson, 2021)). Other children are pretty self-conscious and therefore lack the confidence to socialize freely in school with class and socialize with friends. Selective mutism frees children from various people and remains highly reserved in other people’s companies (Anniko et al., 2019). They may fear talking in the teacher’s presence but be highly talkative with particular friends. In the presence of dreadful social impacts that may result in obsessive-compulsive disorder, the students require appropriate stress management processes that improve social wellness.
It may be difficult to manage stressful thoughts affecting the kids because of trauma, stress, and anxiety that causes inattention. Inattention and restlessness are revealed when children squirm in their seats because of poor psychological health (Schluger, 2022). Children would not want to go to school when it becomes a fundamental cause of anxiety and discomfort. When children have to use phones in school, they may not concentrate on trying to reach their parents through messages and social media channels. Anxious kids tend to be inquisitive because they want assurances (Torrano et al., 2020). They may ask repetitively to seek reassurance. Children can act compulsively by kicking objects when they face highly traumatizing situations (Anniko et al., 2019). They may fight more frequently or throw objects. Anxious children are likely to break eye contact and avoid connection with their teacher because of their inability to engage effectively in class and socialize freely. Physical manifestations of anxiety can also occur in the form of complaints about stomachaches, headaches, nausea, or vomiting due to improper overall health.
Text anxiety is a common form of stressful behavior affecting children’s well-being. Examination anxiety may be continuous when it persists after exam failure, which occurs because of the fear that persists after the examination. Test anxiety combines physical and emotional responses that cause discomfort and poor focus during examinations (Hoffses, 2018). Examples of physical manifestations of test anxiety include headache, shortness of breath, and excessive sweating that arises as the body responds to stressful situations (Kaczmarek & Trambacz-Oleszak, 2021). The affected person may have an increased rate of heartbeat that would increase body temperature and cause persistent sweating. The result of this anxiety is the occurrence of frequent panic attacks that cause difficulties in breathing. Physical symptoms are a result of body reactions in the brain that translate the fear emotion to hormones and lead to the occurrence of these physical symptoms.
Emotional manifestations of test anxiety include stressful feelings that cause helplessness and disappointments. The mind might respond to this stress by going blank and increasingly unable to recall appropriately during the examination because of racing thoughts. Emotional symptoms of stress might also explain poor performance in class because of failures to concentrate appropriately in class (Paulson, 2021). Emotional impacts are also related to the cognitive influence that involves concentration difficulties, pessimism, and procrastination which may cause irresponsibility and procrastination (Caldwell et al., 2019). Research shows that text anxiety is more common in girls than boys and increases with age before reaching peak levels at mid-adolescence. Poor examination preparation is a crucial reason for test anxiety, fear of failure, and poor results’ adverse consequences. Therefore, emotional stress has a practical impact on the mental capacity to make proper academic decisions.
School shootings are other highly stressful instances in American schools, like the recent mass shooting on May 24, 2022, that claimed the lives of 19 children and two teachers in a deadly encounter with a gunman. Given the media’s highly effective portrayal of these instances, there is a significant impact on children all over the country who may become anxious about shooting possibilities in schools (Abrams, 2022). The frequency of school shootings is substantial, making children uncomfortable because of potential violence. Anxiety and panic disorders are common, and kids usually internalize these fears, which would multiply their mental health issues over time. Anxiety and PTSD are common in children of all ages but are more effective in younger kids. Teens are more scared because they can make sense of violence (Abrams, 2022). The psychological effects of school shootings are significant and therefore risk students’ mental health because of inflicted fears and dreadful influence because of poor health.
The cognitive impact of social media is alarming because of the increased number of hours spent on mobile phones and other social media technology. Social media has contributed to increased depression because of Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The children spent little time doing other valuable activities like socialization, hobbies, and physical activities that may help in individual cognitive development (Ehmke, 2022). beneficial practices like academic practice and research receive a slighter portion of individual time compared to social media, which may result in feelings of depression, anxiety, and poor body image (Caldwell et al., 2019). Children have little time experimenting and practicing valuable skills because they can remain held on their phones even until late at night. They may suffer immensely from decreased ability to create meaningful relationships and succeed in valuable school activities.
Social media tends to lower individual self-esteem because of increased social media consumption that adversely affects social life. This impact also increases irritability and poor confidence levels. They are likely to visit destructive sites, undergo movement disorders, and remain highly frustrated with people who prevent them from visiting these sites (Ehmke, 2022). Children might not have sufficient information and resilience to manage the effects of cyberbullying, dreadful viral trends, and online predation (Caldwell et al., 2019). They may share unnecessary information because they are unable to make a proper judgment on the information they release to the environment. Children are more likely to suffer depression because of cyberbullying because of access to the uncontrolled release of abusive comments on social media platforms. Racism and gender violence in social media can affect child health and therefore impact their performance in school.
Instances of anxiety can also occur because of mindfulness that arises because of the urge to know the results and outcomes of a given instance. It increases anxiety and worries as children become curious about their new environment after separation from their parents and seek reassurance and proper social protection (Caldwell et al., 2019). It may affect student attention and focus as children may be overwhelmed with other issues that affect their overall well-being. Mindfulness training can help control the impact when children get the necessary education concerning self-efficacy and preparedness and create an easy integration into the dynamic school environment (Dunning et al., 2019). attention and metacognition increase as children gain the ability to meditate about their school environment and create individual solutions concerning the issues that affect their peace and performance in school.
There are practical tools that children can apply to overcome anxiety, like correctly identifying the instances that cause anxiety. Children can also gain from school programs that examine their thoughts, emotions, and experiences and act empathetically to ensure they feel protected. Physical activities are effective in solving anxiety issues. They need to learn how to break down tasks and prepare appropriately for examinations through proper task assessments that promote individual efficiency and performance. Role-plays and recognition of individual accomplishments can multiply children’s success by building confidence and encouraging them to work more towards class efficiency.
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