Good Students Get the Jitters, Too

Even children who shine in school may suffer back-to-school anxiety.

"Kids who set very high standards for themselves, and who see any mistakes or shortfalls as evidence of personal failure, may be at increased risk of emotional distress when the demands of school return," Patricia DiBartolo, an associate professor of psychology at Smith College and an expert on social anxiety disorders, says in a news release.

She studied 36 children in grades 3 to 5 to examine perfectionism in children and its implications in their responses to school. The study found children who were rated higher as perfectionists exhibited much more anxiety and dissatisfaction with their performance on computer tasks than children who ranked lower in perfectionism. That was true even when, based on objective measures, both groups actually performed equally well.

Even before they started the computer tasks, the high-perfectionism children predicted they would do less well than the low-perfectionism children. That suggests low self-esteem in the perfectionist children, DiBartolo says.

"Perfectionistic kids get caught in a vicious cycle. When approaching a task or project, they feel less able to succeed, get anxious and then evaluate their performance more negatively than their non-perfectionistic peers," she says.

Setting high standards is not the problem. The anxiety experienced by these children arises when they can't accept mistakes that are a natural part of learning.

Preemptive treatment can help these children deal with the normal challenges of the school day. If a child develops perfectionistic behaviors that become debilitating, it may be time to consult with a mental health professional experienced in working with children, DiBartolo says.

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