Date of Award

2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

School of Education

First Advisor

Jenelle Stone, PhD

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative exploratory study is to gain a greater understanding of the root causes of the perceived increase of anxiety amongst middle school students at The Dalles Middle School (TDMS). Students, along with their parents/guardians, are reporting increased anxiety that is preventing them from attending school, completing homework, taking tests, being around peers, and much more. It is imperative to gain a deeper understanding of what is creating higher levels of anxiety amongst adolescents which would allow public schools to implement data-driven interventions at multiple different levels that will begin to hopefully mitigate these high levels of anxiety. Staff members could use proven techniques from data that can be immediately used in a school setting. Having interventions that could be used at the classroom, building, and district levels respectfully could drastically impact the environment of a school district at the micro and macro level, while also impacting an entire community. Public schools would also be able to host informative sessions throughout the school year for parents, guardians, and families that discuss these issues, including providing short-term and long-term strategies that could be used at home. Most importantly it would teach students executive skills of how to deal with anxiety that could be used for the rest of their lives.

The Student Assistance Team (SAT) will meet to begin working on the problem of understanding the perceived increase in anxiety among students at TDMS. The SAT team will use a qualitative method called the 5 Whys (Mind Tools, 2022; Rajeh, 2020). The 5 Whys allows participants to examine a particular problem and work towards understanding the root causes of this problem. The main goal of the 5 Whys is to continue to ask the question of “Why” is this problem occurring? The data of these work sessions will be recorded by an application on an iPhone called Evernote. The data collected will then be analyzed and coded accordingly based on the findings.

The SAT will meet again to participate in another qualitative method called a Fishbone Analysis (Kane, 2018). The objective of the research will remain the same focusing on the perceived increased levels of anxiety among students at TDMS. The Fishbone analysis will allow the SAT members to begin looking at the cause and effect of perceived higher levels of anxiety. SAT members will work through multiple drafts of the visual Fishbone Diagram over several weeks. The goal is to collect a minimum of 5-7 different drafts of the Fishbone diagram. After this, the data will then be coded and sorted accordingly.

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