Grandma's Hands

To thrive, a child must experience the consistent and ongoing care by a loving, nurturing caregiver, whether that person is a parent or substitute caregiver. The security and support that such an adult can provide gives a child the self-confidence and resiliency to cope effectively with stress.

To mature emotionally and socially, children must interact with people outside the home. These interactions typically occur with close relatives, friends, neighbors, and people at child care sites, schools, places of worship, and sports teams or other activities. By coping with the minor stresses and conflicts inherent in these interactions, children gradually acquire the skills to handle more significant stressors. Children also learn by watching how the adults in their lives handle distress.

 

Like adults, children are impacted by events that occur outside of their own communities. For example, shootings at schools and other public places or events are widely covered by all types of media, and most children learn about them in some way when they happen. School shootings in particular receive much coverage by traditional media platforms such as television, radio, and newspapers, and newer media platforms such as online news and social media such as Facebook and Twitter. The older the child, the more access that child has to information about these events. In addition, accounts of political differences regarding polarizing issues such as immigration and gun control are often delivered by various media using extremely aggressive and polarizing language. Even issues such as health insurance are often discussed with extreme emotion or in a hostile manner. These types of information delivered in such a manner can be anxiety-provoking for anyone but can be particularly stressful and damaging for children. Parents may be unable to lessen their child's stress or limit any damage because they may not even know what their child has heard outside of the home.

 

Did You Know...

• Illness or death in an infant or a child often makes parents feel guilty, even when they are not at fault.

• Sometimes children need to hear the same message about a difficult issue over and over.

• Children who are bullied are often too frightened or embarrassed to tell an adult.

 

Certain major events that disrupt the family structure or routine, such as illness and divorce, may challenge a child's abilities to cope. These events may also interfere with the child's emotional and social development. For example, a chronic illness may prevent a child from participating in activities and also impair performance in school.

 

Events affecting the child may also have negative consequences for people close to the child. Everyone who cares for a sick child, or a child who has serious behavioral problems, is under stress. The consequences of such stress vary with the nature and severity of the illness or behavioral problem and with the family's emotional resources and other resources and supports.