What Strategies do Parents Use to Alleviate Separation Anxiety?

Abstract

Nowadays, people are paying more and more attention to children’s psychological development and solving their separation anxiety(SA). This study applied behavioral analysis to explore what strategies are helpful in alleviating children’s SA. Accordingly, the study aims to evaluate whether it can effectively reduce the SA of children according to the strategies of parents. The qualitative research presented in this report used thematic analysis, explored how parents take effective measures to reduce the separation anxiety of children aged 3-4 in kindergarten. Seven parents and six children at a kindergarten in northeastern England participated in the experiment. The hypothesis of this study is that parents have a variety of strategies to reduce separation anxiety. Analysis of questionnaires and observation identified three major themes: (1) verbal language; (2) body language; (3) using objects. These themes proved that these strategies can not effectively alleviate the separation anxiety of children, and the methods are relatively simple. Parents should take more effective measures to alleviate the SA of children. Specifically, the researcher proved that although the parents’ strategies can not completely solve the separation anxiety of children, they still play an important role in the research about children’s SA. Therefore, the research on children’s separation anxiety should be carried out more deeply and comprehensively.