B.C. kids rank highest in back-to-school jitters lead, national, highest, average

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B.C. kids rank highest in back-to-school jitters

VANCOUVER - B.C. high-school and elementary-school kids lead the country in rising back-to-school stress levels just days before classes resume, an Angus Reid survey has found.
Nearly half of the parents surveyed in B.C. (47 per cent) have noticed their kids’ anxiety levels rising in the final days before school resumes, higher than the national average (42 per cent) and much higher than Atlantic Canada (22 per cent) and Alberta (36 per cent), the Aug. 25-26 survey found.
B.C. also edged out Manitoba and Saskatchewan (46 per cent), Quebec (44 per cent) and Ontario (43 per cent).
Parents across Canada who believe their kids are feeling anxious about returning to school cited new teachers (54 per cent), a new schedule (48 per cent), and being overwhelmed by homework (40 per cent) as the main triggers for their stress, the survey showed.
In B.C., parents cited new schedules (72 per cent), being overwhelmed by homework (59 per cent) and new teachers (35 per cent) as the main causes of stress.
More in-depth questioning and followup focus groups would be needed to determine exactly why B.C. kids lead the country in back-to-school stress, Angus Reid representative Joe Piteo said Monday.
Sandy Sharma, a former parent-advisory-council member in the Vancouver School District, said one possible reason B.C. tops the stress ranking in Canada is the upcoming job action by teachers.
Unsatisfied with progress in contract talks, the B.C. Teachers’ Federation has outlined limited job action when school starts next week aimed at administration. But the action includes no report cards and no meet-the-teacher nights, measures that may affect students and their parents.
Sharma said back-to-school anxiety could also be partly explained by competition to do well in school and the plethora of activities that coincide with the beginning of school like sports, arts and tutoring sessions.
However, Sharma, whose daughter is not stressed about heading to Grade Six, said she could think of no definitive explanation for B.C.’s top ranking.
The survey was commissioned by the Mayo Clinic, a U.S.-based non-profit medical-care and research organization, to help them better understand what makes Canadian kids stressed before they head to school.
Stephen Whiteside, a Mayo Clinic child psychologist based in Rochester, Minn., offered some advice for parents with kids experiencing back-to-school stress.
Whiteside, a specialist in back-to-school anxiety, suggested simply letting kids know that feeling anxious is normal. Parents can recount how they overcame the stress of returning to school or heading back to work after a holiday, he said.
“If you can give an example of when you felt nervous but successfully did what you needed to do, and felt better afterwards, that can offer a nice, hopeful, positive message for kids,” Whiteside said in an interview.
“Feeling stress and feeling anxiety is normal, particularly around big changes, and the start of the school year is definitely a big change — bigger if it’s the first year of school or going to a new school, or going up to a higher level school, or after a move,” observed Whiteside.

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Other stress-reducing tips offered by Whiteside include encouraging kids to breathe a little more slowly and deeply.

He also suggested helping kids gradually get back into routines by making contact with school friends, taking them to their school building, and getting them up earlier in the morning.

The Vancouver school board also offers tips for easing the nervousness of elementary school kids and their parents on its website (vsb.bc.ca/district-news/back-school-tips-elementary-school-students-and-their-parents).

The school board suggests getting kids back into a bedtime routine, reading aloud and ensuring that parents are enthusiastic about the start of school.

Just over 400 people identified as parents of children in Grades 1 through 12 in the online survey of 2,006 randomly selected Canadian adult Angus Reid forum panellists.

The margin of error of the survey is plus or minus 2.14 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

B.C. high-school and elementary-school kids lead the country in rising back-to-school stress levels just days before classes resume, an Angus Reid survey has found