College of Arts and Sciences professor says that understanding how your child copes with anxiety is key to helping them with back-to-school nerves.
“If they’re worried they won’t fit in, reframe it: how cool is it that you get to meet new kids, that’ll be fun. You just have to use your own imagination and adjust it to your own child,” said Timothy Owens, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Sociology, in an interview with Record-Courier.
In the interview, Owens discloses how parents can assist their child in battling anxiety, specifically by spending 15 minutes with your child, giving them your undivided attention to allow the child to feel supported and heard.
Owens is an avid researcher of social psychology, self-esteem and the sociology of children. He is the co-editor of Society and Mental Health and has previously served on the editorial board for Self and Identity, the official journal of the International Society for Self and Identity.
Read the entire interview with Owens in the Record-Courier at https://www.record-courier.com/news/20190823/managing-back-to-school-stress-and-anxiety.
Read more about Owens’s other work and accomplishments at https://www.kent.edu/sociology/profile/timothy-owens.