Short Waves

Not only does transferring from one school to another cause stress problems for a moving child, but may also create similar problems for the classmates he leaves behind.

After a two week study, Tiffany Field of the University of Miami concluded that children who leave a school showed increases in fantasy play, agressive contact, lousiness, teasing and sad and angry expressions.

Although the increased activity levels disapeared in about two weeks, the children who entained at the original school would after a two week interval begin to display similarly agitated symptoms, she says.

The children who moved to a new school probably experience an "anticipatory anxiety" associated with the change, while the children left behind may not have been affected until they were struck by changes in the classroom group and constant reminders at school of departed friends.