A pilot study utilising cross-age peer tutoring as a method of intervention for anxious adolescents
Campbell, Marilyn A. (2008) A pilot study utilising cross-age peer tutoring as a method of intervention for anxious adolescents. Journal of Student Wellbeing, 2(2), pp. 16-32.
Anxiety disorders are the most common psychopathology experienced by young people, with up to 18% of adolescents developing an anxiety disorder. The consequences of these disorders, if left untreated, include impaired peer relationships, school absenteeism and self-concept problems. In addition, anxiety disorders may play a causal role in the development of depression in young people, precede eating disorders and predispose adolescents to substance abuse disorders. While the school is often chosen as a place to provide early intervention for this debilitating disorder, the fact that excessive anxiety is often not recognised in school and that young people are reluctant to seek help, makes identifying these adolescents difficult. Even when these young people are identified, there are problems in providing sensitive programs which are not stigmatising to them within a school setting. One method which may engage this adolescent population could be cross-age peer tutoring. This paper reports on a small pilot study using the “Worrybusters” program and a cross-age peer tutoring method to engage the anxious adolescents. These anxious secondary school students planned activities for teacher-referred anxious primary school students for a term in the high school setting and then delivered those activities to the younger students weekly in the next term in the primary school. Although the secondary school students decreased their scores on anxiety self-report measures there were no significant differences for primary school students’ self-reports. However, the primary school parent reports indicated a significant decrease in their child’s anxiety.
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|Item Type:||Journal Article|
|Additional Information:||This article is published in an open access journal. See link to journal website for access to other articles in this journal.|
|Keywords:||Adolescent Anxiety, Cross-Age Peer Tutoring, , Anxiety Disorders, School Counselling|
|Subjects:||Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification > PSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITIVE SCIENCES (170000) > PSYCHOLOGY (170100) > Educational Psychology (170103)
Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification > MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES (110000) > PUBLIC HEALTH AND HEALTH SERVICES (111700) > Mental Health (111714)
|Divisions:||Current > Schools > School of Cultural & Professional Learning
Current > QUT Faculties and Divisions > Faculty of Education
|Copyright Owner:||Copyright 2008 Marilyn Campbell|
|Deposited On:||23 Dec 2009 06:53|
|Last Modified:||19 Oct 2015 05:03|
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