Social Issues Affecting Children

 

To succeed, a child must experience continuous and ongoing care by a loving, caring carer, whether the person is a parent or a substitute caregiver. The protection and support provided to such an adult can provide a child with the confidence and flexibility to deal with stress effectively.

To become emotionally and socially mature, 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 experiencing the minor stresses and conflicts inherent in these interactions, children gradually acquire skills to handle more significant stresses. Children also learn by watching how adults handle crises in their lives.

Like adults, children are affected by events occurring outside 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 occur. School shootings in particular receive much coverage by traditional media platforms such as television, radio, and newspapers and by new media platforms such as online news and social media such as Facebook and Twitter. The older a child is, the more knowledgeable the child is about these events. In addition, political differences regarding polarization issues such as immigration and gun control are often distributed by various media using highly aggressive and polarizing language. Even issues such as health insurance are often discussed in extreme sentiment or hostile ways. This type of information given in this way can be worrying to anyone, but especially stressful and harmful for children. Parents may be unable to reduce their child's stress or limit any harm because they may not even know what their child has heard outside the home.

Did you know ...

Illness or death in an infant or child often makes parents feel guilty, even if they are at fault.

Sometimes children need to hear the same message on a difficult issue.

Children who are abusive are often too scared or embarrassed to tell an adult.

Some major events that disrupt family structure or routines, such as illness and divorce, can challenge a child's coping abilities. These events can hamper the emotional and social development of the child. For example, a chronic illness may prevent a child from participating in activities and may also impair performance in school.

Incidents affecting the child can also have negative consequences for those close to the child. Everyone who takes care of a sick child, or a child who has serious behavioral problems, is under stress. The consequences of such stress vary with the nature or severity of the illness or behavior problem and the family's emotional resources and other resources and support.