Consequences of Stress on Children's Development

Children are exposed to both positive and negatives things throughout their lifetime.  Even they though they are such small and innocent creatures they sometimes experience levels of stress that one would only think adults would go through.  Parents fail to realize that sometimes any incident whether it is big or small can have negative effects on a child.  Stress can cause many issues for children because they are sometimes considers too young and fragile for stress.  According to Tennant (2005), “It is essential that adults understand the damaging effects of stress on children's health, behavior and learning and in turn, value the benefits of a calm, relaxed state” (para. 7).  In many households, a child experiences violence first hand especially in the case of domestic violence that involves the mother and the father.  The children basically goes through the stress of watching their father beat and hurt their mother and by being a child, there is nothing that they can do. 

This is definitely the case of a dear friend of my who grew up in a household where domestic violence occurred daily in their home.  From the time she was five, my friend would often see her father slap or punch her mother.  It started off with just a hit or two every now and then.  By the time she was twelve, the one or two lick had turn into her mother being severely beaten, dragged, spit on, and cursed.  There was many times where her mother was placed into the hospital because of injuries she had received during the fights.  This caused my friend a great deal of stress in which she was always nervous, always crying, not focusing at school, and on the verge of being retained.  To get away from all the commotion and to cope with the stress she would always want to spend the night at my house.  It went from one to two days a week to basically living with us.  Her mother said it okay because she didn’t want her daughter to see her being hurt.  My friend hated to leave her mother and felt that someone had to do something.  She finally told my mother why she always wanted to spend the night and that she wanted to help her mother.  My uncle was a police and my mother called him to report what was going on.  The police got involved and her mother finally decided that enough was enough and pressed charges on her father.  After the father was removed from the household my friend was able to go back home and live with her mother. 

I used to always wonder why my friend never got over the situation while it was going on knowing that there was nothing that she could do about.  I also wondered why she became so distant and isolated but I then realized that she has been through so much that the stress she accumulated made life seem void for her.  According to Berger (2005), “Almost every child can withstand one stressful event, but repeated stresses make resilience difficult” (Cumulative Stress, p. 381, para. 1).   I am just so glad that my friend was able to help put a stop to the violence within her household and to be able to live in a peaceful environment.

In Southern Africa children are faced with several stressors on a daily basis that is basically causing them to deteriorate.  In Southern Africa the children are faced with the widespread of HIV/Aids and the fact that there is no cure for this disease.  There is also the stressor that there is very little food for some children and they are facing starvation in which this also leads to the deteriorating of their health.  Lastly, the Southern African government is not equipped to provide the different services needed to address these stressors in which the future of these children is not so clear (Drimie and Casale, 2009).  The stressors that the children are experiencing are so severe that children are dying because their bodies are not strong enough to handle these harsh stressors.  However, there are several foundations established such as Save the Children an organization that focuses on helping the children of South Africa to deal with the stressors.  According to Save the Children (2012), “In every programme we aim to: innovate – develop and prove evidence-based, replicable solutions to the problems children face” (About Us, para. 2).  The organization is basically working to aid in minimizing the stressors the children are faced with to make sure the children receive the resources and services needed to stay healthy and alive.

References

Drimie, S. & Casale, S.  (2009). D Multiple stressors in Southern Africa: the link between HIV/AIDS, food insecurity, poverty and children's vulnerability now and in the future. AIDS Care: Psychological and Socio-medical Aspects of AIDS/HIV, Vol. 21, Supplement 1.  Taylor and Francis Group, LLC, Florence, KY.

Save Our Children.  (2012). About us. Retrieved from http://www.savethechildren.org.za /about-us

Tennant, V.  (2005). The powerful impact of stress. Retrieved from http://education.jhu. edu/PD/newhorizons/strategies/topics/Keeping%20Fit%20for%20Learning/stress.html