How does Anxiety affect College Students in a Class Setting?
Dou and Zwolak, in their “Practitioner’s Guide to Social Network Analysis” (2019), discuss the problem of students’ anxiety during the learning process. The learning process is undoubtedly intertwined with social interactions in school, college, university, or any facility created for studying. However, the effect those interactions have on the learning experience for every individual might be notably different (Dou & Zwolak, 2019). In some cases, social anxiety results in a tendency to avoid any risks of changing others’ perceptions of an individual’s identity (Dou & Zwolak, 2019). Thus, anxious students tend not to participate in group activities and consequently have no way of reaffirming their knowledge.
How does Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) affect College Students and Homework Completion?
In the book “Abnormal Psychology: An Integrative Approach” (2018) by Barlow et al., it is possible to find general information and examples regarding GAD. One of the examples resembles a student who experienced excessive anxiety toward her ability to pass the enrolled courses successfully. Despite the good grades, ranging from A to B, she was still terrified with every homework and test she had to complete because of the constant confidence she would not manage to handle it (Barlow et al., 2018). According to Byrd-Bredbenner et al. (2021), women are subjected to anxiety more often than men. Their article “GAD-7, GAD-2, and GAD-mini” (2021) provides research focused on the norms for U.S. students’ GAD measurement tools and compares the tools’ factor structure for male and female representatives. Despite the quantitative sex difference, the primary students’ problem was the same – inability to stop constantly worrying about their studies and other life aspects.
What Type of Therapy or Coping Strategies can be Beneficial Treatment for College Students Experiencing Generalized Anxiety Disorders?
Donadkar’s (2019) article discusses the effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) on GAD amongst college students. During CBT, a therapist helps his patients to define and work on thoughts that negatively affect their wellbeing, invoking a behavioral change and functional improvement (Donadkar, 2019). Overall, the research mentioned above registered a noticeable improvement in the subjects’ state after the CBT implementation. The patients generally appreciated the intervention’s flexibility and convenience (Donadkar, 2019). Nevertheless, the sample size for the research was relatively small; thus, further investigation might be needed.
References
Barlow, D. H., Durand, V. M., & Hoffmann, S. G. (2018)..Abnormal psychology: An integrative approach (8th ed.). Cengage Learning.
Byrd-Bredbenner, C., Eck, K., & Quick, V. (2021). GAD-7, GAD-2, and GAD-mini: Psychometric properties and norms of university students in the United States. General hospital psychiatry, 69, pp. 61-66.
Donadkar, S. (2019). Effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy on generalized anxiety disorder in college and graduate students: Literature review. Indian Journal of Physical Therapy and Research, 1(2), pp. 71-74.
Dou, R., & Zwolak, J. P. (2019). Practitioner’s guide to social network analysis: Examining physics anxiety in an active-learning setting. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 15(2), p. 020105.