Ansiedad infantil en estudiantes de segundo de básica de una unidad educativa de Cuenca-Ecuador, en el año lectivo 2023-2024

Abstract

Anxiety is a natural adaptive mechanism in the face of adverse situations or threatening stimuli. This innate response plays a significant role in childhood development, as it functions as the primary defense mechanism against the environment. However, when these responses interfere with emotional, academic, and social development, they generate a negative impact. Physiological, cognitive, and behavioral symptoms occur, limiting healthy development. Taking this issue into account, the research aimed to describe childhood anxiety in second-grade students in an educational unit in the city of Cuenca, Ecuador, during the academic year 2023-2024. This study adopts a quantitative approach with a non-experimental, descriptive, and cross-sectional design. The sample consisted of 44 students (28 girls and 16 boys), aged between 6 and 7 years. A non-probabilistic convenience sampling was applied to three parallel classes A, B, and C of the second year of general basic education. The Childhood Anxiety Scale (CAS) by Gillis (2 011) Spanish version and a Sociodemographic Questionnaire were administered. The results reveal the presence of moderate and low levels of childhood anxiety, with a predominance of moderate levels across the study categories. Additionally, internal and external factors associated with anxiety were identified, highlighting that personal worth serves as a strategy to reduce childhood anxiety levels.