The Lived Experience of Anxiety Among Late Adolescents During High School An Interpretive Phenomenological Inquiry

Purpose: To gain an understanding of everyday anxiety among late adolescents during high school. Design: An interpretive phenomenological approach was utilized. A purposive sample of eight males and females in late adolescence with everyday anxiety were interviewed. Method: Individual interviews were conducted. Data analysis was undertaken throughout the research study by utilizing a thematic analysis of text in which themes emerged to understand the lived experience of everyday anxiety among late adolescents during high school. Findings: The study revealed themes reflective of the lived body in time and space and in relation with others. The three themes were (a) the embodied experience of anxiety with the subtheme of the body and mind responds; (b) feeling uncomfortable in the lived space of school with the subthemes of the lived relations of bullying, the internal/external space of isolation, and the constant pressure to perform well; and (c) life at home with the subthemes of the lived space of home, the lived relations of pressure from parents, and life will get better. Conclusions: Nurses need to provide holistic care for late adolescents experiencing everyday anxiety by focusing on healing the whole person through the unity of body, mind, emotion, spirit, and environment.