In the last couple years, anxiety has spiked among kids in school, often due to life changes that the pandemic brought in.
Clinical psychologist Dr. Michael Mahon told KMOX that anxiety has affected attendance levels in schools, and sometimes even schools' budgets.
"The first thing that we have to take into consideration is the anxiety kids might be feeling over returning to school because they haven't been there for two years, in addition to what might just be normal anxiety," Dr. Mahon said.
He explained that anxiety in most people is based on cognitive dissonance -- the inability of the human mind to comfortably hold two conflicting thoughts.
"So on any given day, you could have a child who wants to go back to school is really excited to go back to school, but is concerned about who they're going to sit with at lunch," he said. "And when they tell that to the parent, the parent says, 'Oh, that's not a big deal.' But to that child, that's the most important thing in their life."
That normal anxiety, added on top of the way the pandemic has disrupted young kids' school experience, can create even more anxiety than normal.
He said that for parents who are trying to mitigate their kids' anxiety, it's best to physically get on their level -- so that you're looking them in the eyes -- and talk with them about what's going on.
"And then when you talk to them, and they say, 'Oh, I'm worried about who I'm going to eat lunch with,' don't discount that," Mahon said. "So you want to normalize that behavior and say, 'Oh, you know what, that's completely normal. But guess what, even if Tommy and Joey aren't in your lunch hour, there's going to be other people there. And this is an opportunity for you to make new friends.'"
He said the best strategy for parents is to listen carefully to their kids, tell them their feelings are normal, and to try to minimize the amount of conflict that might be in their minds.
For more on how to deal with back-to-school anxiety, listen to the whole conversation with Dr. Mahon.
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