School Experiences and Anxiety Trajectories Among Youth with Intellectual Disabilities.
Stop bullying and build a calm, learning-focused classroom and anxiety in students with ID will edge down.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team tracked the students with intellectual disability for three school years.
Each year they asked kids, teachers, and parents about anxiety, bullying, and how safe the school felt.
They used simple rating scales so even students with mild ID could answer.
What they found
Anxiety scores dropped a little each year, but only for kids who felt safe and were not picked on.
When bullying stayed high, anxiety stayed high.
Nice moments with peers gave short-term relief, yet did not change the long-term trend.
How this fits with other research
Libero et al. (2016) saw the same group of youth and found their overall quality of life was still below average.
Céleste’s new data extend that picture: school climate can trim anxiety, but it is not enough to lift full life satisfaction.
Moss et al. (2009) showed warm sibling ties cut behavior problems at school; Céleste shows warm peers give only momentary calm.
Together the papers say relationships matter, yet peers at school help less than close siblings.
Why it matters
You can’t erase anxiety with one kindness lesson.
Focus your behavior plan on cutting victimization first: teach peers to spot and stop bullying, add adult shadows at lunch, and reward up-stander responses.
Next, boost the learning climate: post clear rules, give students choices, and praise effort.
These two moves are small, cheap, and they shaved anxiety year after year.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This study investigated how the school experiences and personal characteristics of youth with Intellectual Disabilities (ID) contribute to their longitudinal trajectories of anxiety. To this end, we relied on a sample of 390 youth with mild (48.2%) to moderate (51.8%) levels of ID, aged from 11 to 22 (M = 15.70), and recruited in Canada (n = 140) and Australia (n = 250). Across three yearly time points, all participants completed self-report measures of anxiety, school climate, and victimization. Our results revealed a slight normative decrease in anxiety over time and showed that experiences of school victimization were associated with higher levels of anxiety (initially and momentarily) and increases in victimization were accompanied by increases in anxiety over time. Perceptions of attending a school that fosters security and promotes learning also tended to be accompanied by lower levels of anxiety (initially and momentarily). Momentary increases in perceptions of attending a school that fosters positive peer interactions were associated with momentary decreases in anxiety, whereas momentary increases in perceptions of attending a school characterized by positive teacher-student relationships and an equitable treatment of all students both led to small momentary increases in anxiety once all other components of student school experiences were considered. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2024 · doi:10.1007/s10803-023-06127-y