Essay On Children During Depression

The Great Depression affected many people and families in the 1930s. They had to deal with many different challenges and hardships. These families had to face hunger, unemployment, and some even with being homeless. Some families crowded into a small apartment or house with other families. Others lost their homes and moved into a tent in a Hooverville. To help with fathers being laid off from work, mothers would sometimes go out and look for work. In other cases, teens would travel by freight train or hitchhiking to find a job that they could send money home with. More often the husband would leave his family in search of a new job. This left family relationships torn up. The family would miss their father, but if he were to return without a job things would sometimes get worse. The fathers would feel like failures and would mope around the house. Thus leading to irritated wives which lead to more fights between them. Some fathers

Usually children have the role of just playing, studying, and maybe some chores to help around the house. While this is the case of many households, during this time of stock crash, children had the equal role of an adult. Infact there were cases where, “the male figure in the family lost his job, and other family members such as the wife or children often attempted to obtain work” (Stull) Although working at a child’s age may not surprise many as it may already be a custom to others, the reversed roles of the children nonetheless affected the way children viewed their life. It is said that,“during the Great Depression an estimated 250,000 youths left home to search for work”(Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information) Children that started off with a no money life, may have not even had a childhood filled with games and laughter, but instead filled with cries and pleads for jobs. Typically, “they often began washing dishes and doing other chores around the house and/or on the farm by the age of five and were able to do most jobs like adults by the time they were teens.. they often worked alongside their parents, helping with gardening, canning, cleaning, ironing, cooking, chopping wood, farming and performing many other different jobs. It was a natural way of life as they grew older.” (Stull). Like cause and effect, the strain from child labor, causes the children to have bad health, and poor health prevents them to have time for education. Within the strict schedule the children have, the word play or rest, hardly exists. The child labor they go through does not provide any time for rest, therefore impacting the childhood as it creates only

The Great Depression was a very influential era in American history, affecting many future generations. One of the most prevalent impacts it had on society was the extreme poverty that swept across the nation, affecting both people in cities and in the country. The main cause for this poverty was the mass loss of jobs among the middle class. Millions lost their jobs and consequently their homes. Families lived out of tents and cars in shanty towns or Hoovervilles. In these camps, many people didn’t have their basic human needs met, children and adults alike starved. They lived in clothes that were caked in dirt and tattered, too small for growing children and too cold for the frail elderly. Government relief programs attempted to help but offered little support to the now impoverished families of the millions that lost everything.

"Men pray to the gods for health and they ignore that it is in their power to have it."

This forced children in urban areas to work street jobs, like newsies and shoeshiners. This work greatly increased by 74,000 more newsies and 415,000 newspaper carriers between the years of 1928 and 1934. This increase was the product on the lack of jobs, they did it to earn money to support themselves and/or their families. Like many people, the children adapted to the change in order to survive. The change was not just a political one based in laws by banning child labor, but also a social change in that it became more of a common sight to see children work certain jobs. With the change, not all kids went to the street, many went to and stayed in school during the depression.

Antidepressant drugs taken by children have been linked to increased risk of suicide. Exasperated mental health professionals began prescribing antidepressants to children and teens in large proportions in the 1990’s, even though studied safety of such drugs for use in minors had not been conducted. Consequently, standard growth models and brain development may be impaired by the use of these drugs. Moreover, children may be risking one evil for another as adult years could prove to hold adverse side effects and health risks from prolonged use of these drugs.

Furthermore, up to 24,647 trespassers were killed a along with 27,171 being injured on railroad property (Alva, Danzer, Krieger, Wilson, Woloch 476). As a result of expensive/lack of food, many children ate very less or not at all for quite some time. 20% of America’s children were starving and without proper clothing for the harsh weather. In some mining regions, the percentage of malnourished children reached up to 90% (How the Depression Affected Children). Malnutrition weakens the immune system which is why diseases, such as rickets, increased in children. The infant rate was at its highest point because of lack of prenatal medical care. The Great Depression left many children orphaned and abandoned. Those affected are unable to forget this horrific time of their lives.

Many people were poor in the great depression. Your parents would have lost their jobs and money because many businesses went out due to the stock market crash. You would have lost all your money because due to the stock market crash, various banks went out of funds then closed. The Americans lost so much money.They lost 30 million dollars when the stock market fell.

The Great depression began in 1929 with a dramatic event called that Wall Street Crash. This led to the failure of banks and businesses all over the United States. Millions of people lost all their savings and their jobs, and thousands became homeless because they could not afford to pay their rent. Some homeless families lived in shacks made of cardboard. Others took the road to look for work. (Bingham J.) As it could be imagined it was very disheartening to many as losing everything that was worked hard for. Many events took place during this time, like the Stock Market Crash, The Dust Bowl, The New Deal and also Prohibition that changed the outcome of what people could and couldn’t do.

A study on the child’s mental health involves the mental functioning and the way a child behaves and responds to some instances of life. The study is done by exploring the physiological process and the neurology of a child. The key areas of study include; concentration, mind functioning, emotions, acuity, character and cognition. There are two processes in a child’s development that needs the attention of the parents; physical and the mental development. This is the time that the parent can be able to determine a child’s with mental or physical challenge. The psychology of the child depends on the development of the mind as well as genetic psychology. Genetic psychology is the study of how factors that affect the genetics can

The assigned article for this week was ‘Can Preschoolers Be Depressed?’ by Pamela Paulaug. As the title told, the article was about young children, such as preschoolers’ depression. The article can be mainly broken into three big chunks: there was a boy named Kiran and his case was introduced as an example; controversy over preschoolers’ depression among psychologists, psychiatrists, and researchers; its best treatment for young children so far known.

This quote I found from an online article explains what kids went through during this harsh time. It almost sounds like they were slaves by how low they were getting paid. Most of us have never even heard of kids working late at nights doing jobs that today no one can possibly do because they have been replaced with machines from the dangers they carry. Children worked some of the most dangerous factory jobs that existed and they didn’t by choice. They had no choice but to work because either their family was poor or they were orphans.

Children didn’t have a lot during The Great Depression.Kids had to share burdens and issues on money with their parents.Often parents couldn't get gifts for their children so some would often make them presents.In the movie all the children in the neighborhood would share one cake for all the children birthdays.

Today review evidence-based treatment fashion in Children and adolescents. We will also review new Suicide Prevention guidelines

These children also usually lived off family much longer than children who graduated from college. They would stay with family, focus on their school work, and some even got part time jobs. During the depression if a child got to go to college, that child was expect to take college seriously. School work was to be the first priority, then a job and after that was down time. Getting good grades and being successful in college was not only important to parents, but it was a priority for children, the better the grades the easier it would be to get a job once they had graduated (Everyday Life 1929-1941).