Stress 'high before term starts'

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Children become stressed about starting school months before term begins, researchers have claimed.

Raised levels of the stress hormone cortisol were found in youngsters up to six months before classes began, a Bath University team said.

Lead researcher Dr Julie Turner-Cobb said the results of the study of 105 children suggested parents' anxieties were rubbing off on them.

The study was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

The team sought to discover the impact that beginning school had on children's temperament and behaviour.

Stress levels in anticipation of starting school begin to rise much earlier than we expected Dr Turner-CobbLead researcher

They asked parents to complete questionnaires about their child's behaviour and personality.

They also collected small samples of their saliva three to six months before children joined the reception class, about two weeks into the first term and about six months after.

These were then analysed for cortisol levels - which tend to rise when the body is under stress - to try to assess how anxious children were about events.

The team found levels of cortisol peaked in the samples taken at the start of term, but that they were also above the normal range in the samples taken three to six months before school started.

'Anticipation'

They had, however, returned to the normal range six months after school had started.

Dr Turner-Cobb said: "We expected cortisol levels to increase when school began. It's quite a good thing to have a stress response.

"If they hadn't had the stress response then it would have been more worrying."

But the team did not expect the levels to be raised in the six months prior to school starting.

"This suggests that stress levels in anticipation of starting school begin to rise much earlier than we expected," she added.

She speculates that parents were getting stressed about their off-spring starting school and that this was being passed on to the children.