Is Your Kid Stressed About Starting School This Year?

School kids in Singapore are more stressed than their peers overseas. If your kid is feeling the pressure, here’s how to find what's triggering his anxiety – and how to help.

- Eveline Gan

Tummy aches, nausea, headaches and sleepless nights – the list of mysterious symptoms went on.

As each new school term approached, my cheerful, fun-loving daughter, Jubilee, would morph into a dour, anxious insomniac with vague health complaints.

Sensitive by nature, she took more than a year to get used to preschool and another six months to ease into Primary 1 without bawling. Now 11, she has, thankfully, learnt to better handle emotions and stress.

What do kids stress over, you might ask. School related problems are often the main culprit. According to a study by Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which polled over 500,000 students worldwide, Singapore students have higher levels of anxiety about their tests and grades than their peers in other countries.

In fact, 80 per cent of the children seen at Think Kids, which provides early intervention and developmental services for children with special needs, have some anxiety or emotional health issues due to school-related issues.

“More demands are placed on children’s academic performance, thus increasing their stress,” shares Pamela See, an educational and developmental psychologist at Think Psychological Services and Think Kids.

But academic performance is not the sole source of stress. It is not limited to exam periods and can be experienced at any point in the year, says Dr Ong Say How, senior consultant and chief of the Department of Developmental Psychiatry at Institute of Mental Health (IMH).

Other factors like relationship stress, like friendship issues, difficulties with school authorities and bullying play a part too, he adds.

With less time spent on developing their well being and physical health, kids end up being less resilient when they face stress, Pamela says.