Research on developmental and time-related trends (cohort effects) of anxiety is important for the assessment of anxiety levels that are not in line with expected developmental trends, and are in need of intervention. We present theresults of a large cross-sectional, two-wave cohort study for anxiety for emotional and cognitive components of anxiety, respectively. We measured anxiety using the Lestvica Anksioznosti za Otroke in Mladostnike [LAOM (Anxiety Scale for Children and Adolescents)] anxiety scale (general trait anxiety, and two cognitive components and one emotional component) in two age groups: 10-year-olds (N 4351; 2621 males and 2663 females), and 14-year-olds(N= 4043; 2545 males and 2569 females) over a 4-year period (2007-2011). The results of threeway analysis of variance showed significant gender, age and cohort effects with significant age X gender interaction effects (n2=0.002) and age X cohort effects (n2=0.000). The effect sizesare small. As expected, females showed higher levels of anxiety and, in line with developmental trends, 14-year-olds showed higher levels of anxiety compared with 10-year-olds. The time-related trends (cohort effects) show a significant increase in anxiety and its components from 2007 to 2011. The effect sizes are small, with cohort effect being the largest one (.07 d .34) and larger effect sizes generally in 14-year-olds than in 10-yearolds. The implications of the findings are discussed, and in line with the results early intervention is supported.
COBISS.SI-ID: 2614615
In the paper we will analyze a predictive power of home (e.g. SES, parental activities with children) and school environmentrelated factors (e.g. school climate, achievement) for pupils' anxiety. The multiple regression analyses will be performed for 4th and 8th grade pupils on TIMSS 2007 (N=8394) and TIMSS 2011 data base (N=9415) for Slovenia. On the national level anxiety scale (Kozina, 2012) was administered in both TIMSS cycles. The predictive power of models (including only home and only school variables) will be compared (based on the % of explained variance) and on the basis of included variables the relative predictive power of home environment variables in comparison to school environment variables will therewith be established. According to the research literature reviewed, higher levels of anxiety is expected for pupils with low SES (Guerrero, Hishinuma, Andrade, Nishimura & Cunanan, 2006), less support from their parents (Ahmed, Minnaert, van der Werf & Kuyper, 2010), lower achievements (Normandeau & Guay, 1998), negative school climate (WienkeTotura, MacKinnonLewis, Gesten, Gadd, Divine, Dunham & Kamboukos, 2009) and negative attitudes towards school and school subjects (Kos, 1990). In case results shows that school related factors are significant predictors of pupils' anxiety we will additionally perform a hierarchical linear model of data from 2007 and 2011 to evaluate if there are any significant differences in anxiety between schools. Inclusion of two data cycles collected in two time periods will offer observation of changes in anxiety predictors in time. Practical implications of the results will be discussed.
COBISS.SI-ID: 2698327
This paper focuses on the presumption that students' learning outcomes can be influenced by (among other things) fostering social and emotional learning (SEL) and by reducing their anxiety. Learning and teaching in schools are not only characterised by a strong cognitive component, but also by emotional and social components (Zins, Weissberg,Wang and Walberg, 2004). Social and emotional learning involves the processes of acquiring the fundamental skills of identifying and regulating emotions, setting and achieving positive goals, taking into consideration other people's perspectives, establishing and maintaining positive relationships, taking responsible decisions and dealing with interpersonal conflicts in a constructive way (Elias, Zins, Weissberg, Frey, Greenberg, Haynes et al., 1997, in Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Schellinger and Taylor, 2011). Students' lack of emotional and social skills, together with their low level of connection with school in the transition to upper secondary education, may lead them to lower academic achievement or even abandoning school (Blum and Libbey, 2004). In addition to students' greater social and emotional competence, social and emotional learning also improves their view of themselves, others and school, and at a school level also decreases the frequency of aggressive behaviour, fosters cooperative behaviour within the classrooom and increases academic achievement (Durlak et al., 2011). Studies have revealed achievement in Year Eight can be predicted more efficiently from the data on pupils' social and emotional skills from five years ago than the data on their learning achievement from the same period (Barrett, 2012). Several universal prevention programmes have been developed for the purposes of encouraging social and emotional learning, where the FRIENDS programme has proven to be especially effective (Barrett, 2005). In addition to the positive impacts on an individual, the programme also achieves positive impacts on the school as a whole.
COBISS.SI-ID: 2643031