Emotional health of first grade children attending regular- and boarding schools

Abstract

Introduction: A substantial body of research indicates that starting school is associated with increased anxiety, fears and behavioral disorders among children. However, little is known whether emotional problems in children are associated with school type. Aim: To study whether the emotional health of first-graders in a boarding school is different from that in a regular school in a Russian setting. Methods: Altogether, 48 first-graders from a regular school and 48 first graders from a boarding school in Arkhangelsk participated in a cross-sectional studyWell-being, Activity, Mood (WAM) questionnaire, Phillips school anxiety scale; René Gilles projective method were applied. In addition, “Fears in the houses”; “The Ladder technique”, “Houses”, “Educational motivation” techniques were used. Subjective well-being was studied using Arkhireeva’s questionnaire. Mann-Whitney U-tests were applied to compare central tendencies in two independent groups. The alfa-error level was set at 5 %. Principal component analysis with varimax normalized rotation was used out to identify the most important characteristics of the emotional health of the first-graders. Results: We observed substantial and statistically significant differences in emotional health among the first-graders in different schools. Children attending the boarding school had higher levels of activity (p = 0.004), feeling well (p = 0.005), satisfaction with relationships (p = 0.019), subjective well-being (p = 0.015), learning motivation (p = 0.014). Life management (p = 0.001), attitude towards a teacher (p = 0,022), sociability (p = 0,000) were included in the risk zone in this group. Children from a regular school had higher levels of sociability (p < 0.001), life management (p = 0.001) and emotional warmth towards the teacher (p = 0.022). Areas of concern among these children were psychological tension related to being at school (p = 0.013) and doing homework (p = 0.004), social stress (p = 0.012), proneness to conflict (p = 0.018), frustration related to the need to be successful at school (p = 0.003). Conclusions: Significant differences in first-graders’ emotional health by school type were observed. Our results warrant development and implementation of mental- and emotional health promotion programs among schoolchildren, which should take into account the differences between regular- and boarding schools.