Stress Symptoms in Elementary School Children of Tabriz

Experience of chronic stress in children, has a significantrole in developing future physical, mental and social problems. It is critical that families,teacher and professional group have the ability to detect the signs of stress in children.According to statistics published by the Ministry of Education in 2008-09 there are about5.5 million children in elementary schools of Iran. Meanwhile few studies have been doneon stress in children ages 7-12. The aims of this study were, therefore, to assess stresssymptoms in elementary school-aged children. In this descriptive research we included 839 Tabriz elementaryschool students in grades 3-5. First, the schools were selected using quota sampling from5 education zones of Tabriz; then the students were selected using simple randomsampling from these schools. Data gathering tool was Children Stress Symptoms Scale(CSSS) implemented through individual interview after content translation, validity andreliability using test re-test. Data were analyzed using percentage, absolute frequencyand SPSS software. All of the 26 items of the employed questionnaire were reported as stresssymptoms by children. More than half of the students reported worry, tachycardia, fear,trembling and grieving. Meanwhile 46.6% had reported headache and 41.8% of themhad reported tiredness. There was significant relationship between variables of gender,grade and type of school and any signs of stress. Children react in different ways to stress. Recognizing these symptoms willallow parents, teachers and professional staff to know of student’s physical and mentalstatus and may lead to intervention to reduce their stress.