ABSTRACT
As adults, we can recognize how major life changes (positive or negative) can be stressful. Facing the unknown can place individuals at a disadvantage, not knowing what to expect or anticipate. For some, hoping for the best, but anticipating the worst, can be a lifelong challenge. For children, school transitions can be a stressful event and have as much, or even more, impact than a job change for adults. In fact, it has been found that visits to health care professionals for complaints of stomach aches, headaches, and body pains peak for children and youth during two key periods: transition to elementary school (6 years of age) and entry into middle school or junior high school (Schor, 1986). Even 4-year-olds have been found to show elevations in their stress levels just in anticipation of beginning school within the next 6 months (Turner-Cobb, Rixon, & Jessop, 2008). What is even more surprising is that preschoolers who had the most difficulties with attention and impulse control were the most stressed upon school entry and in the first 6 months of enrolling in the school program. Children who exhibit uncontrolled behaviors (difficult temperament, with hyperactivity and poor ability to control impulses) are at the greatest risk for negative outcomes, including school adjustment problems.
