Of the approximately 50.5 million school-age children from pre-K through 12th grade in the United States, over 5 million struggle with the negative effects of anxiety, including up to 2.5 million who refuse to go to school and/or participate in parts of their school day. Anxiety impedes concentration, unsettles behavior, and interferes with perception, frustrating the optimal functioning of students.
Cognitive resources of those affected are diverted from information processing and creative endeavors, which inhibits development of abilities and talents. While research has indicated that the adverse effects of anxiety on performance can be reduced or eliminated with the use of effective resources, excessively high caseloads of school counselors, psychologists, and social workers, as well as scheduling difficulties, limit the amount of time available for these professionals to provide individual counseling support long term.
THE JOURNAL OF ALTERNATIVE AND COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE
Volume 00, Number 0, 2016, pp. 1–7
ª Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
DOI: 10.1089/acm.2015.0316