School-related fears of children and adolescents

Although maladaptive fears are complexly determined and often refractory to change, advances in cognitive-behavioural counselling offer considerable promise. Of the many fears displayed by children, several-performance anxiety, social anxiety and school phobia-are of concern to school staff. In describing the major fear reduction procedures (e.g, systematic desensitisation) this article highlights the need to be flex-ible and to ensure that interventions are age-appropriate. Despite the differences between fear-reduction procedures, they aUaim to expose the individual to the fear-eliciting stimulus. Awaiting further research is the role of the teacher in the identi-fication and management of anxious students