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Contributing Factors to the Development of Anxiety in Adolescents

Contributing Factors to the Development of Anxiety in Adolescents

Mackenzie Soares

St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School

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Contributing Factors to the Development of Anxiety in Adolescents

Anxiety in adolescents has become more of a frequent issue in today's society. The effect that

a Childs everyday exposures, such as school, family and society has on the development of

anxious behaviour were undetermined. No child experiences these life aspects the exact same.

For some, the aspects tend to be more negative than positive, overall affecting how they deal

with other situations. At school, a child is prone to develop "test anxiety" when exposed to high

stake evaluative examinations. The test anxiety they experience causes worry, stress and fear of

receiving poor marks on an important summative. The distraction from anxious feelings overall

limits them from using their full potential and knowledge to accumulate a grade that reaches the

necessary academic standards. When dealing with family, it is possible that a child could

exposed to negative factors, such as over involved parenting and lack of family structure. Over

involved parents tend to hypnotize their child that they need assistance in everything they do.

The child begins to pose any situation that they must take on without their parents assistance as a

threat, and feel at extreme unease when their parents are not around. If a family has lack of

structure, a child is more likely to feel alone and uncertain of their place in the family dynamic.

In society, a child being involved in negative peer relations, such as conflict with friends and

bullying, makes them more prone to anxious feelings. They begin to worry, stress and avoid peer

relations when exposed to these negative aspects in society. Overall, everyday aspects youth

experience have more of an effect on anxiety development then realized, and when not handled

properly, can affect future anxious behaviours as well.

Hannah, a 10 year-old girl was raised by a very loving and supportive family. She suffered

from shyness as a young child, but as soon as she reached grade one she began making friends
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Contributing Factors to the Development of Anxiety in Adolescents

and succeeding academically. As the year continued, Hannah began to make excuses to not

attend school. She refused to take the school bus out of fear it may crash and received no sleep at

night from stressing over the thought of taking a test. At home, she began to obsess over

upsetting thoughts, such as her parents dying or a stranger intruding their house; because of this,

she demanded to be on the same floor as her parents at all times and insisted they secured the

house to unnecessary means. Hannah's constant worry, obsessive thoughts and fear made it very

hard on her parents. Would it not be beneficial to understand what caused the anxiety and the

symptoms of it before it gets too severe? Anxiety can be defined as a feeling of worry or unease,

typically about a situation where the outcome is unknown and something could go wrong. It is

perceived as a normal human reaction, used to help make the mind and body aware of potential

threat or danger. In the brain, the amygdala is one of the main contributors to anxiety. The

amygdala is located in the limbic system, which triggers ones “fight or flight” reaction. The body

is the first to respond in a situation that may cause someone to experience anxiety, with

symptoms such as dizziness, increased heart rate, difficulty breathing and excessive perspiration.

A few seconds after the body, the brain will begin to process the situation and decide how to

react. Depending on the circumstances of the problem, the brain will deactivate the “fight or

flight” response and calm down the rest of the body. Studies have shown that children with

anxiety have larger amygdalas, making them fear possible threatening situations to a greater

extent.

The environment an individual is exposed to or a traumatic experience someone has gone

through tends to have the largest role on developing anxiety. Factors that could leave someone

prone to anxious behaviour include abuse, death of a loved one, stress about a relationship or a
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Contributing Factors to the Development of Anxiety in Adolescents

serious medical illness. When someone has been exposed to these type of situations, it is likely to

affect their actions and how their brain functions. Today, studies have shown that genetics may

have a significant role in the chances of someone developing a case of acute worry. It is said that

if someone has developed an anxiety disorder before the age of 20, it was most likely because a

close relative possesses one as well. Researchers have tried to understand the relationship

between genes and anxiety by observing if close relatives undergo any anxiety disorders. It was

concluded that if a child's first-degree relative has an anxiety disorder, they are at a greater risk

of developing one as well but, a child's environmental conditions still play the most important

role.

Someone could be diagnosed with anxiety at any point in their life, although the risk of

obtaining the common disorder is greatest during adolescence. Anxiety disorders as a child is the

most common form of psychopathy, affecting approximately 10% of all youth. As a youngster,

the most common signs that an anxiety disorder is developing are, lack of sleep, no longer

wanting to attend school and exceptional fear and distress when separated from their parents.

Children with anxiety typically try avoid whatever situation may be causing them stress. They

tend to obsess over any type of situation where the outcome is unknown such as, academic

accomplishments at school or athletic performances if they are involved in a sport. In some

cases, a child may obsess over the idea a loved one may die, or that whenever they get into a

vehicle, it could get into an accident. A child's mind constantly being consumed with negative

and stressful thoughts make it very hard for them to function properly in society.

Although very serious, the disease can be treated effectively. Depending on how severe,

treatment options include therapy or prescribed medication. Length of recovery varies for each
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Contributing Factors to the Development of Anxiety in Adolescents

individual; it may take a few months or even up to a year. It is recommended to treat anxiety as

soon as it begins, this way it will be treated before it gets too serious.

How everyday aspects of life affect the development of anxiety in adolescents is a question

commonly asked in today's society. To conclude this idea, everyday routines and interactions and

how they could potentially increase one's anxious behaviour were considered; aspects including

school, family and society. Roughly, half of an adolescent's life is spent at school learning,

studying and participating in educational activities. As the child ages and moves to the next

grade level, schooling becomes harder and grades become more important. They are presented

with high stakes testing, where earning a high mark is needed in order achieve excellence. The

worry of not accumulating the necessary mark to succeed, and the humiliation that comes along

with it could potentially contribute to an adolescent's anxiety development.

The other half of a child's life is typically spent at home with their family and loved ones. How

a child is parented is a factor considered when looking at the development of anxious behaviour.

Over involved parenting style can be defined as a parent who shadows their child; meaning they

direct their behaviour, never allow them to do things for themselves and are constantly with their

child, allowing them zero time alone. When a child is exposed to an over involved parent, the

question commonly asked is how it affects the attachment they have towards their parents, and if

they will be able to do things for themselves as they grow older, without any signs of an anxiety

disorder development.
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Contributing Factors to the Development of Anxiety in Adolescents

As an adolescent in society, making friends and fitting in is not easy for some, as it is for

others. A child who is bullied, not accepted by others or has difficulty maintaining healthy

relationships with peers may not make them feel as at-ease in society as desired. Continuously

feeling stressed in society may make a child isolate themselves in any social situation. When a

child is isolated, it is possible that they could develop severe apprehensiveness and anxious

responses to any of the situations they are dealing with in society.

The everyday aspects of life today's youth experience are handled differently for each child.

For some, they are more challenging to deal with than others, making it a factor that contributes

to the development of an anxiety disorder. The most reoccurring aspects of life that affect

whether or not adolescents develop anxiety are school, family and anxiety. At school, children

are required to participate in curriculum testing that have a great impact on their academic

success. The worry and stress that comes along with test taking and presentations have a large

effect on anxiety in adolescents. The fear of poor grades and humiliation makes high stake

testing a very difficult and stressful situation for a lot of children. At home-life with their

families, parent-child interactions have an effect of the development of an anxiety disorder. Over

involved, overprotective parenting styles raise a child to be less independent and the parents to

become a child's “safe zone”. The children develop a strong attachment to their parents and feel

distressed handling situations without them. When it comes to society, children who have a hard

time fitting in, or those who are involved in bullying have a greater chance of developing severe

nervousness or social phobia. Whether the child is a victim or perpetrator of bullying, it is

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Contributing Factors to the Development of Anxiety in Adolescents

common for this societal issue to result in anxious feelings. Relationships with peers play a role

in social anxiety as well. If a child has a hard time finding a “social group” to fit in with, or has

negative relationships with their peers, anxiety is a frequent side effect to these difficult

situations. The challenges that children face with everyday, normal aspects of life play a huge

role in childhood anxiety. Depending on each child, every predicament is handled different but is

very possible to be accompanied by anxious reactions and behaviour.

It is not always easy to pin-point the exact causes of anxiety in a child's life. No child's life is

identical to another, but they tend to be exposed to the same, everyday aspects of life; school,

family and society. When the environment for any of the reoccurring aspects of life is negative, it

tends to have a negative effect on a child's behaviour. It is possible their behaviour will begin to

show signs of anxiety from not being able to handle each situation as normally as desired. The

thought of achieving high academics in school becomes more frequent and stressful, family

becomes harder to separate from and dealing with negative relationships with peers begins to

take a toll on youth's actions and feelings. Fear, stress and worry begin to take over their mind

and make everyday tasks difficult to accomplish. From thorough research, it is suggested that

three main contributors of the development of anxiety in adolescents are school, family and

society.

Stress at School

Whether a child is in elementary or high school, every once in awhile they are required to take

tests that quiz their knowledge of the curriculum they have studied over a period of time. On
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Contributing Factors to the Development of Anxiety in Adolescents

occasion, the exam taken greatly affects their overall grade average, so it is necessary to achieve

a high mark. There is a great deal of anxiety that comes along with important course examination

in an adolescent's life. A student will begin to experience something called “test anxiety.” Test

anxiety can be defined as a fear of failing an important test before or during the examination. It

compromises psychological, physiological, and behavioral reactions concerning the thought of a

negative outcome on evaluative situations, therefore distracting someone from performing to the

best of their abilities. While experiencing test anxiety, a child may undergo physical sensations,

such as increased heart rate and muscle tightening (Segool, p.1-2). The physical side effects one

feels from the nervousness of taking a test and the results being below standards tends to distract

the child. The child experiencing different levels of physical discomfort before the examination

will not allow them to focus solely on what the test requires them to accomplish. During an

exam, a test anxious child is not spending all of the time they are given to complete the test

answering questions and solving problems. Instead, they give approximately half their attention

to completing the test, and the other half they give to task-irrelevant thoughts, such as worrying

about their test performance and the grade outcome that will come from it (Lowe, p.2). When a

child is not dedicating the time they are given merely to completing what is asked of them, they

would not complete all the questions, or not complete them in the necessary detailed form.

Incompletion of any form results in poor marks, therefore giving the child another reason to

stress.

Not only does a child develop anxious behaviour from poor high stake testing results, but they

also tend to worry about humiliation. As previously mentioned, a child fears poor results of

evaluative situations, but they also tend to fear humiliation from a substandard mark. When a
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Contributing Factors to the Development of Anxiety in Adolescents

student does not achieve excellence in their academic testing, they worry that they will receive

ridicule from teachers and loved ones (Lowe, p.5). It is possible that the desire to avoid potential

humiliation could motivate them to study harder and prepare more in advance for their test, but

when considering anxious children, it is more likely for the fear to distract them and affect their

overall results.

As a result, children dealing with anxious behaviour from in-school curriculum testing,

“students do not perform well on standardized achievement tests (Everson, Millsap, &Rodriguez,

1991), receive poorer grades (Chapell et al., 2005), and are more likely to be retained (Beidel &

Turner, 1988) and to drop out of school (Tobias, 1979)”(Lowe, p.2). Constant worry and fear

that comes with anxiety begins to affect the child's performance during important school tests.

The student begins to worry before taking the test that they will do poorly and be humiliated by

the teacher and other classmates. During test, the child will begin to worry about receiving poor

results, distracting them from test questions and not allowing them to use their full potential and

knowledge to answer the questions. When a student is test-anxious, they are more likely to

receive poor grades, resulting in a tendency to drop out of school to avoid the worry that comes

with important testing. An anxious students anxiety is heightened from high stake testing and can

leave them with long-term, negative effects if not handled properly.

Parent-Child Relationships

It is a normal parental instincts for a mother and father to want to protect and help their child

in any situation they feel they can not accomplish without assistance. Even though the parent

may feel that they are just trying to help their child, over involved parenting could be one of the

contributing factors to the development of anxiety in adolescents. Parent-child relationship and

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Contributing Factors to the Development of Anxiety in Adolescents

anxiety is distinguished by an over protective style of interaction. Parents tend to cater to their

child with increased involvement and protection to reduce and prevent any type of distress

(Hudson, p.1). When a child is still young, parental assistance is more necessary and helpful for

them, but as they get older, their parents assisting them with simple tasks and presenting

situations as dangerous begins to have a negative effect. For example, if a parent does not allow

for a child to learn to do things for themselves, such as make a simple meal, or they would not

allow for them to walk to the bus stop alone, their child is more likely to feel anxious if the day

comes where they need to complete these tasks alone. Any situation that their parents had

perceived as dangerous before is now considered a threat in their mind and tends to make the

child react anxiously if their parents do not assist them. Long-term affects to an overprotective

parenting style is the development of a separation-anxiety disorder, increasing the child's

perception of threat, reducing their perceived control of threat and increasing their overall

avoidance of threat (Hudson, p.2). In an observational study, conducted by researchers Gordon,

Nowicki and Wichern in 1981, children ages 7-8, accompanied by their mothers, were asked to

participate in a problem solving task. The task consisted of a puzzle too difficult to complete,

where the child had a certain amount of time to complete it and their mothers were allowed to

assist if needed. During the puzzle, it was observed that mothers who gave more help, interfered

more and gave more direction parented children with external lack of control, meaning they felt

that they had no control over whether they were successful or not in completing the task. As

opposed to parents of children with internal control, the mothers assisted less, allowing for their

child to manage their own success or failure. As a result, the experiment presented evidence that
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Contributing Factors to the Development of Anxiety in Adolescents

is consistent with the notion that over involved parenting styles is associated with a child’s

decreased perception of control over events (Hudson, p.3).

In a family setting, parenting styles are not the only contributors to youth anxiety; family

structure is said to have an impact as well. A family with lack of stability, high dysfunction and

lack of communication tends to have an effect on the development of anxious behaviour in an

adolescent. Children being exposed to an inconsistent environment at home can leave them with

feelings of instability. In some cases, highly anxious children portrayed their families as

unbalanced. This meant their family continuously switched between a high feeling of the family

as a whole with equally important members, and high or low feelings of a whole with an

increased idea of an importance ranking system (Bögels, p.7). An unbalanced family dynamic creates

a general dysfunction and lack of communication throughout the members. A child being surrounded by a

negative family structure and constant inconsistency makes a child more prone to developing anxious

behaviour in family related situations.

As an outcome, children with specific family dynamics have an increased likelihood of developing

anxiety. Over involved parents make it harder for a child to face situations and complete everyday tasks

without any feelings of distress. Unfamiliar situations are immediately posed as a threat, and the

attachment to their parents has become so strong that they feel at extreme unease at the thought of

handling it alone. Family interactions as a whole and whether they are negative leave a child with anxious

behaviour. Inconsistency and lack of communication as a whole result in a child being unsure of where

they stand in the family dynamic, ultimately leading to increased distress in family functioning.

Challenges in Society

For any child, whether they just started elementary school, or transitioning into high school, making

friends and fitting in is not always the easiest thing to do. The period of time as an adolescence is very
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critical to a one's social development. It is marked by an expansion of peer networks, increased

importance and desire for close friendships, and possibly the beginning of romantic relationships.

From previous examinations of the changes in social relationships, the studies suggested that

peer relations have an effect on a child's development of social anxiety. Both boy and girl

adolescents fear rejection from their peers. Being accepted by others the same age, that they

spend the most time around is considered to be an important part of their self-identity, and has a

strong influence on their psychological adjustment when dealing with society (Greca, p.2). When

a child develops a close bond with a friend, there's no telling whether the relationship will be

positive or negative. If negative interactions begin to occur with the child's relationship, such as a

conflict or exclusion from a close friendship, heightened feelings of distress and discomfort are

side effects, overall contributing to their social anxiety. On the other hand, when a child is

exposed to the positive qualities of a close peer relationship, such as intimacy and support, they

are more than likely to show lowered levels of social anxiety and stronger peer relationships with

others (Greca, p.3). Constantly being exposed to a relationship filled with conflict and negativity

adds extra stress to a child. They begin to worry about the relationship and whether or not the

argument will end begins to take a toll of the child's psychological state, therefore adding to the

prediction of anxiety.

As mentioned before, not all children have as easy as a time fitting in as others do. For those

who do not fit in with their peers, it is more likely for them to be a victim of bullying.

“Approximately 5–15 per cent of primary school children and 3–10 per cent of adolescents in

secondary school become victims of bullying weekly or more frequently (Perry et al., 1988;

O’Moore and Hillery, 1989; Rigby and Slee, 1991; Smith, 1991; Slee and Rigby, 1993;
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Contributing Factors to the Development of Anxiety in Adolescents

Whitney and Smith, 1993; Olweus, 1994; Genta et al., 1996).” (Kaltiala-Heino, p.1).

Victimization tends to come from lack of support from peers and any other social networks.

When a child is victimized, they are left with feelings of lowered self-esteem, isolation, lack of

concentration and lack of school attendance out of fear. A child who is exposed to the feelings

that come along with victimization distract them from focusing on important things, such as

school, and growing as a person with confidence and their mind becoming preoccupied with fear.

Obsessive feelings of fear and lack of personal worth overall contributes to the child developing

anxiety and social phobias. Surprisingly, it is not only the victims of bullying that tend to

develop anxiety, but the perpetrators do as well. It is a common hypothesis that bullies are in fact

anxious and insecure. To mask those feelings, they tend to act in aggressive manners towards

other children (Kaltiala-Heino, p.3). All of the most common side effects victims of bullying

experience tend to be equally common amongst the bullying instigators as well. When any child

experiences these feelings, whether they are the victim or perpetrator, overtime it will gradually

contribute to anxiety (Kaltiala-Heino, p.7). A bully expressing their anxiety in a negative way

will begin to affect whoever they are expressing them too, eventually passing along their anxious

feelings and behaviour.

Overall, societal interactions a child experiences either have a negative or positive impact on

their anxiety development. Being exposed to positive peer relationships, such as a close

friendships, tend to have a positive effect on a child's anxiety, ultimately lowering any anxious

tendencies. Adolescents being in an environment where peer relations are negative, such as

conflict with friends or bullying, are more likely to develop excessive fear and worrying. The
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Contributing Factors to the Development of Anxiety in Adolescents

signs of anxiety begin to increase over time, ultimately leading to the child attempting to avoid

any of the situations causing them distress.

After thorough, credible research was found, it was concluded that a child's everyday aspects

of life; school, family and society have a strong impact on a child's development of anxiety, if

negative. When considering each factor in its negative form, it is easier to understand how

adolescents can develop anxiety. At school, when taking into account the importance of

achieving high academics, feelings of distress and unease from not accumulating the desired

mark and humiliation because of it, make it easier to understand a Childs anxious behaviour.

Continuously experiencing those feelings before any high stakes evaluations make a child more

prone to obsessive thoughts of worry, a common symptom of anxiety. In a family setting, when a

child is exposed to over involved parenting and a poor family structure, it is likely to enhance

anxious behaviours. They begin to form separation issues from their parents; feeling the need for

their assistance in every situation, even as they get older. Their attachment to their parents

overall enhances a perceived opinion of threatening situations. Any situation they have to face

alone is considered to be dangerous, contributing to the development of extreme unease and

uncertainty. Lastly, a child facing difficulties in society, such as negative peer relationships and

bullying, tends to effect the enhancement on anxious behaviour. When experiencing a conflict

with a friend, a child begins to feel worry, unease and discomfort. If the child is a victim of

bullying, it is more than likely for them to experience low self-worth, avoidance of school and

isolation. As a result, these everyday aspects a child experiences when negative, have a large

impact on a Childs anxious behaviour. If each child experienced the positive forms of these
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Contributing Factors to the Development of Anxiety in Adolescents

situations, it is likely that any symptoms of distress would have not developed in the first place,

therefore, children experiencing anxiety in today's society would not be as common.

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Contributing Factors to the Development of Anxiety in Adolescents

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