Getting to Know the Cause of Your Children’s Stress

Surprisingly, stress can be encountered in children. Stress among children can be found from toddlers, to teenagers. However, stress among toddlers generally reflects the mental condition of their care giver. Based on a national survey in the United Sates performed by WebMD, 72% respondent show negative attitude due to stress and 62% show physical symptoms related to stress, like headache and abdominal pain.

What are the cause of stress among children? There are some things that can cause stress among children, which include:

Learning activity

Sometimes, parents do not realize that daily activity at school is very tiring and demanding. Not to mention the pressure your children get from the learning process, like taking an examination. “Evaluating your children’s ability can give some kind of pressure for them,” explained Marian Earls, MD, a pediatric growth and development specialist in North Carolina, United Sates. At the beginning, parents have the good intention to put their children in certain courses, but this extra lesson will put more burden for your children. Ask your children about the activity that they have. Explore their opinion about their activity.

Lack of sleep

Your children need enough sleep after a tiring day filled with activity. Lack of sleep would impact your children’s mood, memory and your children’s ability in processing information. During nap time, turn off all electronic devices, including hand phone. According to the National Sleep Foundation, 3 out of 4 children aged 6-17 years old have at least one hand phone in the bed room. This will impact your children’s resting time because they can lose up to one hour every night, due to the time spent with their hand phone.

Friendship

If your children have difficulty in making friends and not so popular among their friends, then it can be a burden for them. Socio- economic status difference with their friends will also put your children at risk of developing stress. Verbal and non-verbal bullying, will put your children at risk of developing stress. Show your support, so they can be more confident in doing their daily activity.

Family issue

Family issue can become a problem for your children. Family, which should provide comfort and protection in the first place, can be a distraction due to parents fighting, the death of family member, or divorce.

According to Adele Cadieux, pediatric psychologist at Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids, stressed children will have a change of mood and behavior. “They will speak in negative tone. Physical symptoms will usually occur, they will complain of headache or abdominal pain, sleep disturbance and eating disorder,” she explains further.

If there is any sign of stress among your children, you can do the following things to help them:

• Improve your upbringing pattern. If you tend to have an authoritarian style of parenting, you better change it, so your children do not feel depressed with excessive demand.
• Creating tight bond with your children and communicate with them. The bonding between parents and children will open up your children’s heart, so that they have the courage to confide in you.
• Make sure your children get the nutrition they need, and enough sleep. Children who have enough sleep tend to have a more stable mood and not easily irritated, and has better ability to cope with school stress.

Parents’ affection is needed by every child. This affection will help your child in coping with daily stress. Keep supporting, training and nurturing your children so that they can enjoy their daily activity.