Consequences of Stress on Children's Development

"The beneficial aspects of stress diminish when it is severe enough to overwhelm a child's ability to cope effectively" (Middlebrooks & Audage, 2008, pp. 4).

Stress is an important part of life.  There is good stress such as starting a new school, meeting new people, and getting shots.  There is also bad stress such as abuse, neglect, and other long-lasting issues.  Some stress is right in the middle and includes things such as death or a disaster.  Stress can have a positive impact on life if dealt with in a healthy manner.  Otherwise, stress is harmful especially to children.

An acquaintance - let's call her Suzie - shared her stressful childhood with me.  Suzie was neglected as a child.  She started school and went until 1st grade and then her parents pulled her out.  They didn't want to send her, so they didn't.  Nor did they homeschool her.  Online school was nonexistent then.  Suzie was left to fend for herself at home most of her life.  She learned what she taught herself... without the use of a TV, radio, or any other outside connections.  When Suzie turned 18 she left.  She moved far away from her neglectful family and home.  She took in any bit of information like a dry camel filling up on water.  The world became a wonderfully exciting place that could give her things nobody else ever had.  She eventually married and now has a child who is in PreK.  Suzie is not a product of some horrific neglect stories; she took care of herself and believed in herself when nobody else did.  She is taking evening classes to get her GED.  She talks excitedly about things such as long division, chapter books I read in middle school, and reading in general.  You see, Suzie can barely fluently read a children's book to her child out loud.  She has come such a long way and is doing everything that she can to provide her child with the life she never had.  Her child is smart, well taken care of, and exuberant.  The child is full of life that is backed up by a caring mom and dad.  Suzie learns new things from her PreK child and checks with me to be sure the child is correct before believing her sometimes!  It's an exciting life to be involved in.

My mom works closely with Asian exchange students here in the US.  She places them with host families, helps them with traveling, meets with them to study, and does evaluations.  I have gotten to know several of her students and have observed some stress in their lives.  Many of the students do not take time for social interactions.  They go to school and come "home" and study.  The study on the weekends, too.  Most of them, when asked by my mom to go do something as a group, say they would rather stay home and study.  It seems as if there can never be enough studying.  I decided to look into this stressor a little bit.  It just so happens that Asian children are "taught to respect, honor, and obey their parents" (Fung, Ho, Louie, Martinez, & Lau, 2010, p. 176) above all else.  Individual goals are often pushed aside in order to fulfill family goals.  A positive side of this is that there are less conduct problems with Asian young-people but this in turn effects them developmentally.  Studies on Asian children show high levels of achievement academically, even from a young age, but also show low achievement socially in the areas of self-esteem and social interactions leading to loneliness and depression.  The big stressor, even in young children, is in that fulfillment of family oriented goals.  Success is a family thing; succeed and the family succeeds, fail and the family fails.

I think that the exchange programs deal with this well.  They encourage social interactions, especially within the host family.  Students come to the United States to study and get to know other students their age and desire to fit in.  They begin to open up to peer invites to hang out or go do social things.  Perhaps some of them take this lifestyle back to Asia with them and allow it to influence their lives and those around them.

Resources:

Fung, J., Ho, L, Louie, J., L., Martinez, J., & Lau, A. (2010). In F. Leong, L. Juang, D.B. Qin, H.E. Fitzgerald (Eds.) Asian American and Pacific Islander Children and Mental Health Handbook, Volume 2: Prevention and Treatment. California: Praeger. 
Middlebrooks JS, Audage NC. The Effects of Childhood Stress on Health Across the Lifespan. Atlanta (GA): Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control; 2008.