Performance anxiety in adolescents

As a parent, it's natural to ask:

• What is the difference between stress and anxiety?
• How do I know if my child is experiencing performance anxiety?
• Is it normal or not?
• How can I help them?

The difference between stress and anxiety

First, it is important to understand the difference between stress and anxiety.

Stress is a normal physical reaction of the body to real or perceived danger. It allows us to react and even to face challenges. For example, stress makes a student want to study to pass an exam and prepare before an interview. The accumulation of stress, however, can become difficult to manage for some young people.

Anxiety is the tendency to create stress, exaggerate it, avoid it, or even dread it before it happens.

For example, anxiety in a student might cause them to:

• Feel like they are failing their exam before they even take it
• Fear that they will arrive at high school and be shunned by everyone

“Anxiety becomes a problem when it is overreactive, distressing, difficult to control, lasts for a long time, and causes the child to avoid certain situations. In short, when it interferes with the child's daily functioning.” (Born and Grown, 2016).

What exactly is performance anxiety?

Examples of possible scenarios include:

• Feeling that if he fails his test, his parents will no longer love him
• Fear that they will be the only one unable to do their oral presentation
• Fear that his friends will stop liking him

Situations that increase this level of anxiety may be those that are:

• Difficult to control
• New
• Unpredictable
• Threatening to one's ego

Some of the major manifestations of performance anxiety include:

• Believing that one is bad
• Having memory lapses
• Fear of disappointment
• Anxiety attacks
• Avoiding criticism
• Exaggerated perfectionism
• Anxiety remains even when performance is quite good

Performance anxiety in adolescents with developmental language disorders

First of all, it is important to know that performance anxiety can be experienced by any youth, with or without a diagnosis. This is even more true for youth living with a developmental language disorder (DLD).

Their ability to integrate information is diminished. Their rate of learning is slower. Their language skills are below those of students without disabilities. This leads to difficulties in understanding and integrating learning.  They will more often experience academic delays or even academic failure.

Why is this? Students are often required to perform at a higher level and learn at a faster pace. As a result, they must be more and more autonomous in their learning. This becomes more difficult to do, despite their constant efforts. Since they are old enough to compare themselves, they notice that they have difficulty keeping up with their peers. It is even common to see youngsters with DLD comparing themselves to their younger siblings. They feel pressure because siblings can often accomplish tasks more quickly and easily than they can.

So, what are they likely to do?

Many young people living with a developmental language disorder will begin to:

• Avoid situations
• Refuse to work
• Procrastinate

As a result, they will have a lot of anxiety about the tasks at hand. For example, before writing an exam, they will study all night.  Their reactions will be very distressing.

Many of these students will be considered lazy or unmotivated. However, what we are talking about is total avoidance in order to avoid setting themselves up for failure. For example, some will not show up for an exam, while others will avoid all types of team competitions.

This is when it can become problematic and it will be important to put in place strategies to prevent this from happening. The goal is to build confidence in your child which will help them get through these school years in the most positive way possible. We suggest that you read the article: Tips and tricks to counter performance anxiety, to learn more about some specific tools you can use to support your child.  

References (in French)

Allofprof parents, Qu’est-ce que l’anxiété de performance?
Association Dysphasie +, L’élève ayant un trouble développemental du langage (dysphasie) [document inédit]
Naitre et grandir, L’anxiété chez l’enfant