STRESS MANAGEMENT FOR ELEMENTARY-SCHOOL-CHILDREN - A COMPARATIVE-EVALUATION OF DIFFERENT APPROACHES

The present paper reports on the development and evaluation of a stres s management program for elementary school children which focuses main ly on primary prevention. In order to be able to evaluate not only the program in total, but also specific elements, four program versions w ere constructed. Based on a common conception, they focus on supplying stress related knowledge, on relaxation, and on problem-solving techn iques. A fourth version contains the central elements of the other thr ee versions. 170 third and fourth graders participated in the evaluati ve study. The results comprised over different evaluative criteria sho wed the most favorable results for the problem-solving oriented versio n, followed by the combined version, the knowledge-oriented version, a nd the relaxation-oriented version. The result proved to be stable ove r a six-month interval.