Submited on: 03 Sep 2015 09:20:20 AM GMT
Published on: 04 Sep 2015 01:28:58 PM GMT
 
Stress among elementary school students
Posted by Dr. Ileana Micu on 28 Sep 2015 07:15:52 AM GMT Reviewed by Author Invited Reviewers

  • What are the main claims of the paper and how important are they?

     The main claim of the paper is that stress in childhood is a very important problem that affect student learning and achievement.   Stress in childhood is a very important problem because it may affects the brain development and overall health, so Authors  tackle an essential topic.


  • Are these claims novel? If not, please specify papers that weaken the claims to the originality of this one.

    The study is restricted to girls students in Kashan, Iran, nevertheless it is very important to know how stress affect students everywhere and also how  students stress can be adressed. This study report find different symptoms to be major in the primary school girl students in Kashan  than in other studies impling that young students  stress  might be affected by the environmental conditions. 


  • Are the claims properly placed in the context of the previous literature?

    Authors described briefly relevant literature. 


  • Do the results support the claims? If not, what other evidence is required?

    The results support the claims. Authors report the stress symptoms very detailed in a table. They quantify symptoms such as : stomachache, crying , agitation, headache, madness in a group of  primary girls students.


  • If a protocol is provided, for example for a randomized controlled trial, are there any important deviations from it? If so, have the authors explained adequately why the deviations occurred?

    Authors explain why deviation occur and give statistics. The Table is very informative. I did not see the year when those tests were performed .


  • Is the methodology valid? Does the paper offer enough details of its methodology that its experiments or its analyses could be reproduced?

    The paper used  130 subjects , and authors used a questionnaire that has been tested  previously. Yes, the method is clearly described so it can be reproduced.


  • Would any other experiments or additional information improve the paper? How much better would the paper be if this extra work was done, and how difficult would such work be to do, or to provide?

    I am wandering why they choose girl  students  for this study? Is it a difference between girls and boy response to stress? I think it will be interesting to know it. Also it will interesting to know why and how they choose the age of the girls student for this study? Why they chose girls students from first to sixth grade?   Could it be a big age difference in the problems that first grade and sixth grade girls respond to stress?  If not, it will be good to explain it.

    Also , it will be good to describe in the introduction  some common psychological and physical sign of stress.


  • Is this paper outstanding in its discipline? (For example, would you like to see this work presented in a seminar at your hospital or university? Do you feel these results need to be incorporated in your next general lecture on the subject?) If yes, what makes it outstanding? If not, why not?

    I would like to see this work presented in a seminar at the hospital and university where I work because it target a very important problem: stress in the childhood. The lecture stand by itself because it describe the  stress symptoms in an elementary school in a town. This might be happening in many places in the world , anyway it is important to know and understand each place problems.


  • Other Comments:

    It is a very interesting  topic that this paper describe.

  • Invited by the author to review this article? :
    Yes
  • Have you previously published on this or a similar topic?:
    No
  • References:
    None
  • Experience and credentials in the specific area of science:

    I work in the field of Neuroscience for more than 10 years and I am very interested to learn understand stress because it might the cause of many neurological and psyhiatric. I have strong knowledge of statistical analysis and research.

  • How to cite:  Micu I . Stress among elementary school students[Review of the article 'Stress symptoms among students in an elementary school in Kashan, Iran ' by Adib E].WebmedCentral 2015;6(9):WMCRW003248
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Stress symptoms among students in an elementary school in Kashan, Iran
Posted by Dr. Barbara J Polivka on 20 Sep 2015 07:09:38 PM GMT Reviewed by WMC Editors

  • What are the main claims of the paper and how important are they?

    The main claims focus on the prevalence of stress in school age children. This is an under-researched area especially with regard to school age children in Iran.


  • Are these claims novel? If not, please specify papers that weaken the claims to the originality of this one.

    The claims are not novel per se, but exploration of stress in this population is novel. 


  • Are the claims properly placed in the context of the previous literature?

    The literature review is sparce; review of additional studies in Middle-Eastern countries would have been helpful.


  • Do the results support the claims? If not, what other evidence is required?

    The results support the aim of the study - that school age children experience stress.


  • If a protocol is provided, for example for a randomized controlled trial, are there any important deviations from it? If so, have the authors explained adequately why the deviations occurred?

    This is a descriptive study. The method was appropriate.


  • Is the methodology valid? Does the paper offer enough details of its methodology that its experiments or its analyses could be reproduced?

    Addtional description of the procedures and analysis was needed. While approval was obtained from the IRB and the school, it's not clear if parents were aware of the study. Were children told they had an option of not completing the study? Information concerning response rates were not provided. Was data collection completed before school, during lunch, or after school? While the stress symptom scale has been used in the US, it's unclear if it has been implemented previously in Iran. Was the tool translated or distributed in English? What was the Chronbach's alpha with this population? What softaware package was used for data analysis? Were all surveys completed without identifiers?


  • Would any other experiments or additional information improve the paper? How much better would the paper be if this extra work was done, and how difficult would such work be to do, or to provide?

    It would have been interesting to have some sub-analyses by age group.


  • Is this paper outstanding in its discipline? (For example, would you like to see this work presented in a seminar at your hospital or university? Do you feel these results need to be incorporated in your next general lecture on the subject?) If yes, what makes it outstanding? If not, why not?

    The paper is interesting and provides good information, however it would not considered outstanding.


  • Other Comments:

    The abstract conclusions mention school nurses, however the conclusion in the text does not mention school nurses. There are typos and English language issues.

  • Invited by the author to review this article? :
    Yes
  • Have you previously published on this or a similar topic?:
    No
  • References:
    None
  • Experience and credentials in the specific area of science:

    I have completed studies with school age children.

  • How to cite:  Polivka B J.Stress symptoms among students in an elementary school in Kashan, Iran[Review of the article 'Stress symptoms among students in an elementary school in Kashan, Iran ' by Adib E].WebmedCentral 2015;6(9):WMCRW003244
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PhD
Posted by Dr. Mohsen Adib-Hajbaghery on 05 Sep 2015 09:16:54 AM GMT Reviewed by WMC Editors

  • What are the main claims of the paper and how important are they?

    This paper reported the prevalence of stress symptoms among the elementary students in a school in kashan city. 

    Stress in school age childern is common but unfortunatly often ignored. assessing the stress symptoms in school age childeren is an important issue. the teachers in elementary and other levels of shools should know the symptoms of stress and also should know how to conduct with these children. othervise not onle the students health but also their learning would be affected.


  • Are these claims novel? If not, please specify papers that weaken the claims to the originality of this one.

    Also the stress is not a novel concept, however, its symptoms and origine and also its afthemates are usually ignored in school age childeren. Then the issue is an important one for more investigations.


  • Are the claims properly placed in the context of the previous literature?

    Yes, however, a more extensive literature review would also be helpfull.


  • Do the results support the claims? If not, what other evidence is required?

    Yes.


  • If a protocol is provided, for example for a randomized controlled trial, are there any important deviations from it? If so, have the authors explained adequately why the deviations occurred?

    The study was a descriptive study and no protocole is needed.


  • Is the methodology valid? Does the paper offer enough details of its methodology that its experiments or its analyses could be reproduced?

    Methodologis is valid. However, some more explanations would be helpful.


  • Would any other experiments or additional information improve the paper? How much better would the paper be if this extra work was done, and how difficult would such work be to do, or to provide?

    I suggest autor to do another studies on teachers knowledge and skills on diagnosis stress symptoms in students and on how teachers conduct with students with stress symptoms.


  • Is this paper outstanding in its discipline? (For example, would you like to see this work presented in a seminar at your hospital or university? Do you feel these results need to be incorporated in your next general lecture on the subject?) If yes, what makes it outstanding? If not, why not?

    This is a good work on an important issue. the authoers are suggested to present it for their colleagues through conferences and sminars.


  • Other Comments:

    NA

  • Invited by the author to review this article? :
    Yes
  • Have you previously published on this or a similar topic?:
    Yes
  • References:

    Iran J Nurs Midwifery Res. 2012 Jul-Aug; 17(5): 352–359. Nurses’ perception of occupational stress and its influencing factors: A qualitative study

  • Experience and credentials in the specific area of science:

    Iran J Nurs Midwifery Res. 2012 Jul-Aug; 17(5): 352–359.\\n\\nNurses’ perception of occupational stress and its influencing factors: A qualitative study

  • How to cite:  Adib-Hajbaghery M .PhD[Review of the article 'Stress symptoms among students in an elementary school in Kashan, Iran ' by Adib E].WebmedCentral 2015;6(9):WMCRW003239
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