Child Trend Environmental Analysis

With more than one billion and counting people living in urban surroundings around the world, one could suggest urban areas offer many advantages for children’s advancement and growth. The majority of the world’s children today and in the future will grow up in cities and towns of urban areas where parents expect their children to succeed in stable and nurturing environments. Although an honest concept, children in many urban areas face instability that affects their development and security at some point in their lives. Many children may experience an individual change or with family circumstances. Any negative or positive experience a child has will shape who they are and affect their health, learning and life for a lifetime.

The starting point of violence takes place in communities and at home--not at school. Youth take what they hear and see at home and in their communities to school. The environment in some communities and households are positive and the presences of protective factors outweigh the high risk factors. However, there are communities and households where there is a lack of informal social control and high risk factors exist more than protective factors--, which affect youth in a negative manner.

Children have fallen victim to be considered “at-risk” for a very long time. Individuals argue that all children are at risk in some way or another, while others stress that some children face much higher risks than other children. Children are seen as at risk if they are disabled, have low self-esteem, or have been abused as well as simply being a child with no advocacy (Moore, K. A., 2006). Instead, some individuals struggle that they should not view children themselves as being at risk, instead the environments that the children grow into. For example, it could be said that the family is at risk and not specifically the children.

This neighborhood factor drives children to seek companionship amongst others on the already violent streets and causes them to follow suit. The final factor that may result in violence stems from the individual. For instance, children raised in a bleak and violent environment may develop low self-worth and feel little power over their future. Unable to break the cycle, they become a direct reflection of what they experience in their community and contribute to the ongoing violence.

There are many environmental factors that can affect a child’s behavior such as poverty and maltreatment. Poverty can have an impact on a child’s overall well-being, academic success, and social behavior. The environment these children are raised in can cause challenging behaviors due to the neighborhoods they live in and the lack of appropriate social behavior they observe. Child maltreatment, which consists of physical abuse, sexual

Assessing And Reducing Risk." Child & Adolescent Social Work Journal 31.6 (2014): 521-538. Sociological Collection. Web. 17 Feb. 2016.

Children are arguably one of the most beloved creatures on the face of planet earth. Sooner or later, a child will have to start developing into a man or woman, something every kid has to experience within his or her lifetime. Kids have to develop in a environment which they can grow up to be strong intellectual adults. They typically live in a safe environment with their parents and go to school on a daily basis while coming home to their families who happen to live within a very safe environment.

This simple statement, made by James Garbarino in his book Raising Children in a Socially Toxic Environment, concisely and appropriately describes the current state of children and youth in America. Garbarino suggests that children today are being brought up in a socially toxic environment where violence, divorce, racism, addiction, educational failure, poor physical health, and adult emotional problems are just a few of the "toxic" social forces converging on children, robbing them of their innocence and dignity. Moreover, he argues, children who are faced with economic distress and poverty are particularly vulnerable. For them the risks are compounded, as

The living environment with bad influence can cause domestic violence, for example neighbors and school. Same environmental risks will make neighbors reveal their behavior problem of their genetic risks. Domestic violence will nurture if neighbors have a domestic violence problem. Students spend almost 12 hours a day stay at school with friends. According to Boyd(2003),he claimed that first-grade child risk behaviors for community violence exposure in middle school.Some students with a domestic violence background will show at school.They may affect their friends that did not have a domestic violence background to become violent.If they make friends with some students also with domestic violence background,they also will affected by them to

In addition to poverty, chaotic homes also correlated with behavior problems in children. Chaotic homes involve domestic violence, divorce, and substance abuse. Studies showed that three to four million children who are between the ages of three and seventeen are at risk of witnessing domestic violence each year (Domestic Violence Roundtable, 2008). Research has also shown that 80 to 90 percent of children who came from domestic violence families knew that there was violence taking place in the home (Pagelow, 1990). Children who witness and are exposed to domestic violence in their homes experience emotional, mental, and social harm that can affect development and behavior. Children who witness frequent domestic violence showed heightened levels

According to all eight interviews, it was clear all participants had experiences in childhood where their environment was “unsafe”. In this theme, participants had unstable family dynamics and boundary violations. Unstable family relations effects a person negatively such as separation, divorce, and isolation. Other elements of family disturbance can cause damage too like, physical abuse, sexual abuse, witnessing abuse, and verbal abuse. A child who has their boundaries violated can cause mistrust, especially if it is family. “Boundaries are defined as invisible limits surrounding an individual; they protect the integrity of a person and when these boundaries are violated, the sense of protection and comfort is lost” (Ntshingila 2016). Once

The risk factor that I am most concerned with for today's children is poverty because "poverty puts children at risk for negative developmental outcomes" (Berns, 2013, p. 234). The reason I decided to choose this risk factor is that poverty can have an negative impact on children's education and I learned from watching the movie Beyond the Blackboard how homeless can affect children's learning. Poverty affects children's learning in numerous ways though I believe the worst impact is how it effects their self-esteem and instead of worrying about how well they might have done on a test, they worry about were they are going to sleep or if they will be able to eat someplace safe.

The environment in which children are brought up does have a serious influence on their upbringing. The day to day family interactions such as violence talks, use of abusive language, drugs, and alcohol abuse and strife does have a negative impact on children. Every act of violence teaches children to either resist or become part of an ill-disciplined society. Children in most cases to adopt their family lifestyles, whether good or bad, this is because of the manner in which they see life being presented to them from home. 2.5.1.7

behavior. The study conducted on the impact of exposure to community violence on early child behavior problems confirm the idea that children even raised in harsh or poor environments, is not a valid reason as to why these children are committing these violent crimes. In the study it was found that the link between community violence and problematic behavior during the early years of child development is still an unknown problem to confirm a direct linkage to a child’s behavior (Linares 639). I believe it is very hard and maybe too complicated for psychologist to connect child behaviors to the environments they are developed in because there could be so many situations or problems that could affect ones behavior, and many that may reside outside a child’s home. It comes a point in time when blaming someone for the excuses of another is not the answer or solution to the problem.

Gould and glad discuss the unreeling effects living this way has on children stating. “- Two of the five leading causes of death among children over one year old, injuries and homicide, are closely connected to characteristics of a child’s home and neighborhood. “The fourth key goal is to stabilize living situations. Without housing subsidies, low-income families may have to struggle to pay rent, or rely on shelters and the couches and floors of a series of family members and friends. Such families are continually at risk of having to move. High levels of mobility— and housing insecurity more generally—can heighten stress and undermine physical and mental health”(136) Another point Gould and Glied point out is that most of these homes that these children are living in will have dangerous amounts of lead, and mold or a lack of proper plumbing. Which are all not just dangerous but can cause long term effects on the child’s physical health.” Environmental toxins in a child’s home, such as mold or lead paint, can cause diseases and disabilities. Poor housing conditions may also cause family stress