"Inadequate Tranquility" as a Latent Form of Anxiety in Children and Adolescents

Abstract

In the article school anxiety is considered as a component of school disadaptation and as a personal formation. The phenomenon of school disadaptation is getting more widespread nowadays, indicating that there is a disparity between students’ social, psychological and physiological status and the requirements of school environment. It is confirmed that there are 2 risk groups: manifestly anxious and latently anxious or inadequately tranquil children. Aggression is often a specific form of behavior in the case of hidden anxiety. The aim of the study is to find psychophysiological markers of hostility and anger in inadequately tranquil adolescents. The study involved 66 students (23 of them were included in the inadequately tranquil group) of 9th and 10th grades of Moscow secondary school, whose average age was 15.3±0.7 years old. We used Bass-Perry’s Aggression Questionnaire to assess levels of hostility and anger, and recorded EEG in Pz and ECG at rest with closed and open eyes. In the inadequately tranquil group anger correlated with the stress index, the index of autonomic balance, LF% and LF/HF ratio negatively and with HF and HF% positively. Hostility correlated with the stress index, the amplitude of maximum peak of alpha activity and LF% negatively and with HF% positively. Thus, in this group the tension of the regulatory system is not detected. However, over time the inadequate tranquility can change into manifest anxiety. This group requires further observation. In addition, aggression and hostility are seen as a coping strategy, that is realized by the students in order to regulate their condition and reduce mental stress in a stressful situation.
Keywords: inadequate tranquility; normative anxiety; explicit anxiety, hostility; stress index; heart rate variability.