Work is the most stressful factor in many people's lives. In research commissioned by the mental health charity Mind last year, one in three people said their work life was either very or quite stressful.
According to Andrea Clifford-Poston, an educational psychotherapist and author of several books on behaviour, people who work with children are particularly prone to various forms of stress.
'In some cases, this stress can turn into anxiety,' she explains. 'Staff can become anxious if they are worried something is out of their control or beyond their expertise.
'People expect those that work in nurseries to be experts in childcare, which can create an internal pressure if there is a child a staff member can't manage.' Ms Clifford-Poston says that if anxiety isn't addressed it can become a mental health issue, particularly if a worker has a history of mental health illness.
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