Childhood Development Of Anxiety And Depression

Parents usually have the best intentions – like protecting their children from life's hardships and preparing them for adulthood. However as with many other aspects of parenting, the results do not always match the intentions. Overprotective parents generally want to protect their children from harm, hurt, pain, failure, unhappiness, bad experiences, rejection, and disappointment (Lindsey 1). However, parents must realize that overprotective parenting has certain side effects. Parents believe that they are doing a favor for their children by keeping them safe without realizing that this parenting style can have severe effects on children such as robbing children of the essential life skills that they need in order to have a healthy

Childhood anxiety is quickly becoming the most challenging of all childhood problems. As the root of most problems, anxiety covers a long range of stressors that spread quickly if not treated or relieved early in life. Anxious feelings in children varies from children of all backgrounds. All people feel anxious at one point or another, and it is only when children are affected daily and unable to be calmed when people should become concerned. Many times, children are feeling overwhelmed and cannot express themselves or struggle to understand his/her feelings. Social and emotional development then plays a big part when facing concerns like anxiety in a young childhood environment. Teachers and caregivers need to take a step back and focus on what the child needs rather than what he/she can do to make children calm down. Through interventions, patience, and caring teachers, a young child does not need to be known as "The Child Who is Anxious", he/she can just be a child.

If the mother “groomed” her children less often than the child would have high anxiety and high stress hormones in the bloodstream. On the other spectrum, if a mother were to groom her children more often, then they would have low stress hormone levels and low anxiety levels. This relates to Erikson’s first level of development, “trust vs. mistrust”. While his theory is focused mostly on the nurturing of the person throughout time it recognizes the many outcomes that can come from a situation (page 40, 41). Erikson shows the two ends of the spectrum and the possible outcomes that could come from these, showing the importance of nurture from an early age, including eight stages, until

A caregiver who is suffering emotionally or physically will be less able to respond to their child’s needs, upping the ante of the child developing their own anxiety or behavior problems

Such toxic stress can have damaging effects on learning, behavior, and health across the lifespan. Learning how to cope with adversity is an important part of healthy child development. The most effective prevention is to reduce exposure of young children to extremely stressful conditions. Research also indicates that supportive, responsive relationships with caring adults as early in life as possible can prevent or reverse the damaging effects of toxic stress response (Center on Developing Child, nd). By establishing clear lines of communication between adults and children, and home and school, parents and teachers can help to shape children’s perceptions in informed ways. During times of trouble, when emotions run high, parents and teachers can help children develop the skills necessary to manage their feelings, to confront unpleasant or adverse realities, and to acquire greater emotional stability. In order to support children in better understanding their world, adults may have to help them come to terms with circumstances that are frightening, confusing, overwhelming, or possibly unrelated to their past experience. By providing a safe and supportive environment and a healthy acceptance of all that is good in life, a calm and ready-to-listen adult can facilitate children’s well being, and help to alleviate the fear, dismay or confusion they may feel. In doing so, it is important to honor and nurture children’s sensitivity. Although parents and teachers cannot shelter children from all adversity, they are well positioned to help children learn about the imbalances in the world, to better comprehend their impact, and to find thoughtful ways to strike a comfortable and meaningful balance of their own (Foster & Matthews,

Similar to physical and socio-emotional development, cognitive development is increased with a secure attachment between the parent and child (E, 806). Increasing importance is being associated with the “mothers’ verbal responsiveness, which are important for the emergent language and cognitive skills” (Increase in maternal Education, 3). According to a recent study from Arizona State University, researchers concluded infants with an insecure attachment were less “focused during storybook interactions” and therefore experienced less stimulation as the secure mother/child dyad. (F,445).

Ainsworth also interviewed the mother in order to learn more about her parenting style as well as her experiences growing up with her own mother. She came to the conclusion that three types of children exist—those who are secure in their relationship with their parents, those who are anxious-resistant, and those who are anxious-avoidant. She demonstrated that the infants began to convey "consistently different patterns of distress" (on separation) and protest (upon reunion with their mothers (Shaw, 414). Similarly, the mothers displayed "very consistent patterns of interactions" with their infants while free playing during the laboratory introduction sequence, as well as patterns of comforting the infant on reunion (Shaw, 414). Ainsworth correlated these patterns with infant-parent interactions in the home during the first year of life. For example, children who appeared secure in the strange situation typically had parents who were responsive to their needs while the insecure children often had parents who were insensitive or inconsistent in the care they provided (Fraley, 2).

If anxiety levels rise in these problems, psychiatric, medical, or social dysfunction may develop (Kerr, 2000). In impairment of one or more children problems, according to Kerr (2000), the spouses focus their anxieties on one or more of their children and the children focus their anxiety on them which can ultimately impair school performance, social relationships, and even health (Kerr, 2000). In emotional distance problems, according to Kerr (2000), people distances themselves from others to reduce the intensity of the relationship, but risk isolation from each other. The fourth concept of this theory is the family projection process. This concept describes the primary way parents transmit their emotional problems to a child (Kerr, 2000). This process can impair the functioning of one or more children and can increase their clinical symptoms. Some problems that children inherit from their parents include the need for attention and approval; difficulty dealing with expectations; the tendency to blame oneself or others; feeling responsible for the happiness of others or that others are responsible for one’s own happiness; and acting impulsively to relieve the anxiety of the moment rather than tolerating anxiety and acting thoughtfully (Kerr, 2000). Parents have different roles in this process: mothers are the primary caretakers and experience more emotional involvement with one or

The concerned parent attempts to provide all that is needed for their children to grow and developed into acceptable, productive members of society. The nurturance can sometimes become challenging and even gruesome as together, child and parents, travel through the stages of development. Kail and Cavanaugh (2010), describes two dimensions of parenting. The first dimension relates to the amount of affection and concern presented by the parent (warmth). They are genuine in displaying loving care at one end of the spectrum. They integrate

Erik H. Erikson was a significant psychologist that greatly changed the field of child development. In the 1950’s, Erikson advanced a Freudian approach in development. He viewed that social development as a series of eight challenges that people have to overcome. Each challenge has an outcome that’s either favorable or unfavorable. The outcome drastically affects a person’s personality. For example, in a favorable outcome, the result can leave a positive feeling. With a positive outlook, it’s easier for a person to cope with challenges in life. An unfavorable outcome can leave a person at a disadvantaged for the future. During the first couple challenges, Erikson believed that the caregiver has a great impact on a child’s development

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health illness that affect children and the amount of children affected by this mental illness has increased considerably in the past century. However, the amount of children that actually get treatment is drastically low, leaving children to deal with their fears and worries by themselves. The children who deal with anxiety are overcome with fear and worry and are constantly dismissed as acting out for attention because people are unaware of how serious anxiety can affect children. Anxiety plagues children and can affect them for their entire life if not treated. In order to make sure these suffering children get the care they need, there needs to be more emphasis on anxiety disorders. Childhood anxiety disorders affect the child and the people involved in the child’s life, yet there is not enough treatment or awareness in today’s society.

They looked at 80 children aged 7 through 12, with 41 reporting high anxiety symptomology and 39 reporting low symptomology, and their parents, who were also screened for various anxiety disorders and social phobia. They wanted to look at what specific traits correlated to higher anxiety reports. They found that trait anxiety in mothers had the most significant correlation while over-control and overprotection had the most significant correlation from the fathers (Pereira et al., 2013). In a study looking specifically at parents diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder, the researchers concluded that parents diagnosed with social anxiety disorder displayed higher levels of criticism and over-control, but they theorized that over-control may be common in anxious parenting styles (Brudinger, Drazdowski, & Ginsburg, 2012). Contrary to other studies, Pereira et al. (2013), reported no significant correlation between emotional support, also coded as acceptance/rejection, and childhood anxiety. This contradicts with other studies’ reports that a child’s perceived social support is a predictor of social anxiety symptoms (Festa & Ginsburg, 2011) (Jacob, Suveg, & Whitehead, 2013). However, these results do not completely negate the concept of anxious parenting, but it does call in to question the

A parent is not only the loving mother who holds you close to her for nine months and then many years, or the father who plays baseball with you and intimidates his daughter’s dates. It is someone who is there for you from the start, guiding you to the right path of knowledge and teaching you how to stay on the right path independently. A parent does not need to have any biological associations to the child in order to be a parent to them. A parent has certain characteristics who needs to be met to be justly named a parent. For many years, psychologists have defined ways to correctly support a child into adulthood for parents all

The researchers (Reising, et al., 2013) demonstrated parents who suffered from depression as well as financial hardship did not have a great relationship with their children impacting their psychopathology internally and externally. Thus (Reising, et al., 2013) revealed there are countless children living in the United States surrounded by triggers that may direct them to apprehension, for instance, parents who have suffered or are still suffering from compulsive dejection, financial economic hardship, and parents who are neglectful are a few characteristics that can and may influence children and adolescent to stress leading them to behave in a manner that is not aligned with their community. The following research article are in accordance with the previous literature review relating to parental stress and depression does have an influence on children’s behavior:

The over involvement of parents can make the child develop psychological issues. They are shown to have a higher risk of depression, anxiety, lack self-confidence, and have low self-esteem (“Helicopter Parents” Stir Up Anxiety, Depression). It is shown that no matter what parenting technique is being used, every parents goal is to build their child’s self-esteem (Rutherford). Sadly, helicopter parenting does the exact opposite. Equally important, the persons lack of self- confidence comes from the over involvement of their parents in his/her childhood activities and academics. They never experienced failure or loss because the parents were always there to step in, so they never achieved anything to build their confidence (“Helicopter Parents” Stir Up Anxiety, Depression). It is common for a child with helicopter parents to develop depression when moving from their home to