Effects of Brief Relaxation Training on Children;s Motor Functioning

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Relaxation training is frequently prescribed in the treatment of anxiety, particularly for children with medical disorders. Unfortunately, very little is known about how different relaxation procedures work with children. To test whether different procedures had different effects, we compared test-anxious children given (a) progressive muscle relaxation training, (b) visual imagery training, or (c) nonspecific instructions to relax on several physiologic, self-report, and performance measures. We found no differences among the groups on the physiological or self-report measures. However, the progressive muscle relaxation and visual imagery groups improved in fine-motor performance following training, whereas the nonspecific instructions group worsened in performance. We discuss issues of arousal intensity and generalization of skills.

This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit: