Scared at School? A Child-centred Perspective on Fears and Anxieties

South African children have been exposed to chronic adversity which has resulted in psychological distress and high levels of fear. Violence against children is ubiquitous and injury is common. Children have been found to be ‘scared everywhere’ not only at school but also in their homes and communities. Yet no systematic attempt has been made to explore this. The aim of this study therefore is to provide a systematic investigation of how children conceptualize and understand their own fears and anxieties. It is an exploratory study designed to gain baseline information from a child’s perspective. Although this study focused on the school context it was part of a broader research project that also included the family and community contexts guided by Ecological Systems theory to gain an integrative perspective. A quantitative approach with a cross-sectional survey research design was employed. This study utilized stratified random sampling in terms of the quintile system involving random selection of schools proportional to the size of each quintile. The sample consisted of 312 children ranging between the ages of 13 – 18 years from 7 schools in the North West Province.