Educators and childhood anxiety: the early years research study

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore educators’ knowledge about childhood anxiety within the educational environment. Specifically, this study investigated educators’ ability to identify the signs and symptoms of childhood anxiety as well as educators’ understanding and beliefs about childhood anxiety and its causes. To achieve this, an online questionnaire was designed and offered to practicing Early Childhood Educators and British Columbia (BC) Certified Teachers who were currently teaching or who had recently taught Kindergarten and Grade One. The three part questionnaire was distributed on a social media website and data was gathered in three areas: symptom identification, ability to scale those symptoms for severity based on demonstrated behaviour, and educators’ feedback and thoughts on causality and solutions for prevention and intervention within the classroom. Both qualitative and quantitative data was gathered based on the completed questionnaire. Findings and conclusions were then drawn.