Introduction. what they worried about who worried more - boys or girls what children did when they were worried

Transcription

1 Children s Worries Isobel Sutherland age 10

2 Introduction I was interested in children s worries because I knew I worried a lot and wondered whether other people did as well. I wanted to find out: how often children worried what they worried about who worried more - boys or girls what children did when they were worried

3 What others have found out Author(s) Age of children Three most common worries admitted to Henker (1995) Bernstein (2002) 8-12 primary school age school grades social relationships school performance illness of self or others NAHEC school health Silverman et al (1995) school health death making mistakes and getting teased family and relationships personal harm

4 My Research Questions My main question What do children worry about? Subsidiary questions How often do children worry? Who worries more - girls or boys?

5 How I Chose My Sample Questionnaires I chose 1 class with years 5-6 Interviews I chose 3 people in year 5 and 6, both boys and girls

6 How I Collected my Data I handed out questionnaires I conducted interviews I asked my interviewees the same questions I recorded the interviews on a dictaphone Timescale for project: February to June 2006 (data collection: approximately 2 months)

7 Ethics Thinking carefully about questions Consent Anonymity Confidentiality Data storage

8 How I Analysed my Data (1) Questionnaires: quantitative data I separated the boys questionnaires from the girls I tallied how often they worried from the measurement scale I coded the three main worries each child had written down I entered my data into Excel and then converted my data into graphs

9 How I Analysed my Data (2) Questionnaires: qualitative data Deciding on categories There were too many categories to fit on my charts So I needed to narrow them down Henker (1995) found 21 different worries She fitted them into 6 categories

10 getting lost getting trapped global events heights homework illness money my future other people people dying school work spiders tests accidents arguing Coding being late being lonely being rude body size bullying change divorce family favouritism foot ball friends getting killed saying or doing something wrong Other worries Family and other people Relationships School work Global events The future Doing something wrong Accidents Illness and death

11 How I Analysed my Data (3) Interviews I transcribed my interviews I collected the answers for each question and compared them I drew some conclusions from what my interviewees said

12 My results Things children worry about Other worries Relationships Accidents categories School work Doing something wrong Illness and death Global events Family and other people The future number of children

13 Girls' worries categories Other worries Relationships Accidents School work Doing something wrong Illness and death Global events Family and other people The future number of girls who worry about these things (n= 11) Boys' worries categories Other worries Relationships Accidents School work Doing something wrong Illness and death Global events Family and other people The future number of boys who worry about these things (n= 14)

14 How often children worry never occasionally frequency sometimes most of the time always number of children

15 HOW OFTEN GIRLS WORRY never frequency occasionally sometimes most of the time always number of girls HOW OFTEN BOYS WORRY never frequency occasionally sometimes most of the time always number of boys

16 Interpreting the Graphs (1) The main worries I found were (i) schoolwork (ii) family and other people. (iii) Relationships and illness/ death Boys worry more about school work and girls worry more about relationships, family and other people.

17 Interpreting the Graphs (2) Most children worry at least some of the time It was difficult to tell from the graphs who worried more girls or boys. To try and find an answer to this I gave numerical values to the categories, e.g. Never = 1 and Always = 5. When I worked it out, I found that girls admit to worrying 61% of the time and boys admit to worrying 54% of the time.

18 Conclusions from interviews (1) Girls and boys think girls worry more but they might just worry about different things Some people worry about global issues such as poverty, some people worry about things close to them like people nosying about in their business and changing schools and getting bullied Children think that they don t worry too much, but it can depend on family and people around them

19 Conclusions from interviews (2) Children are not sure as to whether worrying is a good or bad thing though sometimes it depends on what you re worrying about. Children generally go to parents if something s bothering them though sometimes they keep worries to themselves. My interviewees thought that if the worries are to do with school then school should help sort them out. My interviewees thought that parents can help and children should go to their parents if something s on their mind

20 Discussion (1) My results reflected very much what other researchers had found. Most girls reported 3 worries while quite a few boys only reported 1 or 2 Henker had 21 categories and narrowed them down to 6; similarly I had 28 and narrowed them down to 9.

21 Discussion (2) Henker (1995) and Silverman et al (1995) both say that girls admit to more worries than boys. My research shows that girls admit to more worries than boys. But it may be that girls are just more willing to share their worries. When I worked it out, I found that girls admit to worrying 61% of the time and boys admit to worrying 54% of the time. I use the word admit because they may not share all their worries.

22 Discussion (3) I found it very interesting that boys worry more about school work and girls worry more about relationships, family and other people. It would have been interesting to see whether other research showed boys and girls different worries.

23 Conclusion The main worries are: school work, family and other people, relationships and illness/death Most children worry at least some of the time Girls worry more than boys Girls and boys worry about different things

24 What I would do differently if I could do this again Find a quieter place to conduct my interviews I needed to give more thinking time to the children doing the questionnaires Instead of conducting a structured interview I would do semi structured interview I would be more organised with my categories and how I interpreted the data

25 Other things I could find out Henker s research shows that fewer worries are reported in older children, so I could compare answers from different age groups I could see whether boys and girls worry about specific different things.

26 Bibliography BERNSTEIN, G. (2002) Advances in child and adolescent anxiety disorder research, DevelopMentor, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. [online] Available from: [Accessed 10 March 2006]. HENKER, B. (1995) Worldly and workaday worries: contemporary concerns of children and young adolescents, Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 23 (6). NAHEC (2004) Kids Poll: What do children worry about?: A fact sheet for teachers and parents, National Association of Health Education Centres. [online] Available from: Handout.pd SILVERMAN, W., La GRECA, A. and WASSERSTEIN, S. (1995) What do children worry about? Worries and their relation to anxiety, Child Development, 66, pp