Anxiety disorder affects the mental health of children during puberty

Abstract

Introduction. Developmental psychology focuses on exploring children's behavior at every moment of their lives, and the changes that occur from one period to another. Adolescence is associated with the onset of puberty, changes in social and emotional behavior, and the impact of vulnerability on social anxiety disorder. Anxiety is an emotional state that is felt with a feeling of pain, not tension, and with certain physiological phenomena such as effects on his heart rate, increased blood pressure and fatigue. period of development - puberty.

Purpose of the paper: To determine the impact of parental anxiety on the health of children during puberty

Material and methods: An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted. Use "Psychometric properties of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders" (SCARED) - a version for a child, and detect it in 4 domains (panic, separation anxiety, generalized anxiety and school phobia). The questionnaire consists of 41 questions, which we have to answer with one of the alternatives: Not true, somewhat true or very true. The Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS) was used to determine anxiety, consisting of 42 questions that included three scales for self-assessment, personality symptoms, anxiety and stress. 2-5 questions with similar content, and assesses autonomic alertness, skeletal muscle effects, situational anxiety, and subjective experience with the effects of anxiety.

Results and discussion: A total of 600 respondents participated in the research, of whom 300 students (140 male and 160 female students) and their parents (198 males and 102 females). According to the results of the analysis of students’ responses, 96 students were anxious or 32%, 130 children had significant somatic symptoms in terms of panic disorder or 43.3%, 119 (39.7%) children had general anxiety disorder, 149 (49.7%) presented with separation anxiety, 71 (23.7%) were with social anxiety disorder, and 87 (29%) students had signs of school anxiety. 14% (42) of parents thought that their child was anxious, 25.7% (77) had a child with significant somatic symptoms in terms of panic disorder, 7.7% (23) parents had a child with general anxiety disorder, 27.7% (83) parents considered that their child showed signs of separation anxiety, 18.3% (55) parents considered that their child had a social anxiety disorder, while 18.7% (56) parents stated that their child had school anxiety. According to the results of the DASS scale, the prevalence of depression in parents was 23.34% or 70 parents manifested depression; the prevalence of anxiety was 28.7% or 86 surveyed parents, while the prevalence of stress was 22% or 66 parents. A statistically significant difference was confirmed in the distribution of students without anxiety, with possible anxiety disorder, and with anxiety disorder, between parents with and without anxiety. Parental anxiety had no significant effect on the incidence of anxiety disorder in male children, but it had in female children. An overall score for anxiety disorder higher than 30 points, equivalent to a clinically convincing result for anxiety disorder, was recorded in 67.9% (38) of female children of anxious parents and 32.7% (34) of female children of non-anxious parents.

Discussion: Several researchers hypothesize that adolescent onset of depression may follow a different etiological course than depression that develops in childhood or adulthood. For adolescents, poor family functioning seems to "activate" the negative psychological impact of frequent, minor stress.

Conclusion: The results of the study showed a significant impact of parental anxiety on children's health.

Keywords: anxiety, parents, children, puberty, influence.