The invisibility of anxiety in young, traumatised South African children

Abstract

The high prevalence of anxiety in young traumatised children has been well established in literature. However, the body of literature that explores how anxiety manifests in classroom settings in the South African context is still growing. The ways in which it presents at the personal level for individual children, in particular, need to be examined in greater depth. The current study posed the question, ‘How does anxiety manifest in young, traumatised South African children in classroom settings?’ The researchers adopted an interpretive phenomenological approach and used a combination of intervention and vignette research. Data were collected from individualised, intuitive, and integrative psychotherapeutic processes. Primary participants (n = 5) ranged in ages from 8 to 14 years, while secondary participants included parents and teachers. An analysis of parental and teacher interviews as well as vignettes for each participant revealed high levels of anxiety invisibility in classroom settings for all the study participants. This finding was triangulated from the teacher interviews, parental interviews, therapeutic engagement, and vignettes. The study identified the need for capacity development in teachers in terms of mental health and wellbeing, and recommended that additional support mechanisms be provided for young, traumatised children suffering from anxiety.