{"id":1437,"date":"2026-05-15T12:48:02","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T11:48:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beta.devon.gov.uk\/public-health\/healthy-children\/parenting-support\/stress-and-anxiety\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T12:48:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T11:48:02","slug":"stress-and-anxiety","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/public-health\/healthy-children\/parenting-support\/stress-and-anxiety\/","title":{"rendered":"Stress and anxiety"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just like adults, children and young people are bound to feel stressed, worried and\/or anxious at times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is common for children and young people to feel stressed or anxious about significant events such as starting a new school or before an exam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For some children and young people certain social situations might cause them stress and anxiety and they may need extra support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Anxiety becomes a problem for children when it starts to get in the way of their day-to-day life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Severe anxiety like this can harm children&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dcfp.org.uk\/health-and-wellbeing\/emotional-and-mental-health\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">mental and emotional wellbeing<\/a>, affecting their self-esteem and confidence. They may become withdrawn and go to great lengths to avoid things or situations that make them feel anxious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What are the signs of anxiety in children?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When young children feel anxious, they cannot always understand or express what they are feeling. Symptoms may include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>becoming irritable, tearful or clingy<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>having difficulty sleeping<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>waking in the night<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>wetting the bed<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>having bad dreams.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In older children, symptoms can include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>lacking the confidence to try new things or seem unable to face simple, everyday challenges<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>finding it hard to concentrate<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>having problems sleeping or eating<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>being prone to angry outbursts<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>having negative thoughts going round and round their head, or keep thinking that bad things are going to happen<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>avoiding everyday activities, such as seeing friends, going out in public or attending school.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Find out more about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhs.uk\/conditions\/generalised-anxiety-disorder\/symptoms\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">physical symptoms of anxiety<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to ease stress and anxiety<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For children and young people, talking to someone they trust may be the best way to ease anxiety and stress. This could be a parent, grandparent, carer, teacher or someone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Read more about how adults can help to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhs.uk\/conditions\/stress-anxiety-depression\/anxiety-in-children\/#how-to-help-your-anxious-child\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ease anxiety in children<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just like adults, children and young people are bound to feel stressed, worried and\/or anxious at times. It is common for children and young people to feel stressed or anxious about significant events such as starting a new school or before an exam. For some children and young people certain social situations might cause them [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"parent":802,"menu_order":13,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-1437","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-24 17:00:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/public-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/public-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/public-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/public-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/public-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/public-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1437\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/public-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/public-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}