Supervisors info:
Πολυχρονοπούλου Σταυρούλα, Ομότιμη Καθηγήτρια, Π.Τ.Δ.Ε., ΕΚΠΑ (επιβλέπουσα καθηγήτρια)
Αντωνίου Αλέξανδρος-Σταμάτιος, Καθηγητής, Π.Τ.Δ.Ε., ΕΚΠΑ
Συριοπούλου-Δελλή Χριστίνα, Αναπληρώτρια Καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Εκπαιδευτικής και Κοινωνικής Πολιτικής, Πανεπιστήμιο Μακεδονίας
Summary:
Although overall anxiety is particularly common in typically developing young people, its intensity and inclusion rates are even higher in children and adolescents with ASD. These young people, given the difficulties they already face in the communication and in the expression of their feelings, are a particularly vulnerable group. Taking these data into account, as well as the frequent presentation of anxiety in the context of school, the purpose of this study, therefore, through the School Anxiety Scale-Teacher Report (SAS-TR), was to investigate the anxiety of children with ASD and to contrast it with the anxiety of children with typical development, through the opinions of a total of 122 teachers. In particular, with a sample consisting of General and Special Education teachers, 77 of their opinions concerned the anxiety of students with ASD and the remaining 45 the anxiety of students with typical development. From the results of the research, overall high levels of anxiety were found in children with ASD, without, however, being a significant difference in any of the three categories of anxiety investigated, that was, school, generalized or social anxiety, between young people with ASD and young people with typical development. Even in children with Autism, their gender, speech level, learning level and educational level were found to be related to their anxiety. Particularly, the basic question of the category of generalized anxiety collect the highest mean score for this group. The limitations of this research include the small sample and the lack of investigation of the correlation of anxiety with the IQ, while in the future it would be crucial to investigate the effect on the school anxiety of children with ASD, from their participation in extracurricular activities.
Keywords:
anxiety, ASD, school, teachers
