Minor Stresses Vs Major Stress

The author gives exemplary examples of the short term and long term effects of stress. The author goes on to state that the short term effect is beneficial but the long term is not. “Mild stress can be beneficial. It can help you

In article How Kids Learn Resilience, Paul Tough argues that stress can push a child into a cycle of failure in school, harmfully impacting a child’s education and outside life. He claims that stress is apparent in every student’s life; however some have more and this stress has a direct connection on the child’s success both in school and out. Stress can be caused by many things, such as economic, family, or even social problems. The stress prevents a student from staying focused in school because they are distracted by other problems. Since they are not able to focus, they do not perform well at school, leading to bad grades, which leads to more stress. This cycle continues and the student is unable to learn as the workload gets more complicated.

Many children tend to act out how they are feeling instead of verbalizing it. They show aggressive and out of control behaviors towards their relationships. Boys tend to be more likely to exhibit these traits. Girls, however, are more likely to hold in anger, fear, and anxiety, leading to depression. Both of these problems can significantly affect how well a child learns. If a child’s education is affected, it could stay with them throughout their lives. (Santrock 201)

Traumatized children show outcomes of negative physical and mental health once entering adulthood. DeJong talks about the different types of stress. In this section of the article, the author describes the difference between positive stress, tolerable stress, and toxic stress. DeJong describes tolerable stress as having supportive relationships, whereas he describes toxic stress as having a lack of supportive relationships. The author states that experiencing toxic stress in early in childhood could lead to child traumatic stress. According to DeJong, “Child traumatic stress is the physical and emotional responses of a child to events that threaten the life or physical integrity of the child or of someone critically important to the child” (205). Traumatic stress occurs in response to a single traumatic event or reoccurring traumatic events. The author states traumatic stress could lead to toxic stress if it makes changes to the way the body reacts to it. As the article continues, the author begins to describe the effects of toxic stress in multiple body systems. DeJong describes the effects of toxic stress on the social/ behavioral system, the brain and neuroendocrine system, and the molecular and genetic levels. The tone of these sections of the article is very informal. The author did a great job of providing an explanation of the consequences of domestic violence exposure to children, as well as

Tensions can outwardly express themselves in a child in different ways. Whilst it is difficult

Throughout life, both children and adults experience varying amounts of stress in their everyday lives. For the most part, this has been proven to be healthy and crucial in strengthening their response to such stimuli later in life. This paper will focus on the findings of various studies in which researchers have found links between stress exposure and childhood development. Specifically, this paper will focus on the effects of what is known as toxic stress and its effects on the development of a child and its role in the development of mental disorders as the child transitions into adulthood.

The harsh words can cause them to have a more difficult time accepting their failures, and they will lose all motivation to get up and try again after their previous losses. Dispirited, they will wallow away in anxiety and self-doubt, brought about by the conditional praise of their caregivers. When the children are not encouraged when they fail, they are lead to believe that they are worth nothing because they have no special skill and will let the mistake hold them back from challenging themselves in the future. Furthermore, children with harsh parents “were more likely to show signs of anxiety disorders” (Peck), which can create more stress and can hurt the child's ability to cope with stress in a healthy manner. The child may have a harder time falling asleep, which can weaken the ability to create connections in the brain, causing them to do worse at school and in sports. Due to the additional failures in school stemming from the lack of sleep, the children's’ stress will increase. The children are pushed to the point that they have disorders that can have many negative effects on their health, and it is all due to the children attempting to avoid failure in an effort not to get

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,

Children in middle childhood can face situation that cause psychological stress on them. However, the child can build up resilience against such stress. A child’s temperament and master-oriented approaches towards situation can help because this allows the child to take a personal initiative to a problem rather than being a victim. The relationship between parent and child can play a factor. If there is a warm, loving relationship vs. a cold, neglecting relationship, the child is more likely to do better in a difficult situation. Another factor to building resilience is having the child have a non-family member adult as a support system. When there is another adult in the picture, the parents and child may feel less stress in a situation if

From research it is quite clear that the individual as well as various environmental aspects play an important role in influencing well-being as a whole. Research suggests that increased levels of emotional stress can often coincide with increasing issues in the family, peer groups and in the school. In addition, a child’s resilience and ability to cope with these issues can be affected by their personal

Poverty and how it can affect a child’s education and how attachment with a parental figure can affect a child’s education are two major claims made by Tough. Tough believes in general children who come from stressful environments and insecure attachments tend to do worse in school in comparison to others. Children who are surrounded by stressful situations in their home environment tend to be distracted emotionally, thus leading to their poor performance in school. In an attempt to explain this phenomenon, stress psychologists described how the part of the brain that is critical in self-regulatory, cognitive and emotional responses is the part that is mainly affected by early stress. Using this information, Burke Harris conducted a study where she assigned ACE scores to thousands of patients based on childhood trauma including growing up in an abusive home. Based upon these results, Burke Harris found a powerful correlation relating ACE scores and people’s performance in school (17). In order to make sense of this information, McEwen described

The psychological health of children around the world is detrimental to their abilities to cope, succeed and be able to function normally within social settings. According to Evans and Shamberg ( 2009), “Chronically elevated physiological stress is a plausible model for how poverty could get into the brain and eventually interfere with achievement” (p. 6545- 6549). Children residing in poverty stricken neighborhoods and families tend to experience environmental stressors as well as physical stressors such as educational setbacks, lack of resources and physical demands that are not being met. These stressors can cause a problem in the psychological health of children because of the need to continually adjust to changes and setbacks that stem from poverty.

Children are at a higher risk of becoming emotionally unstable when they are continuously being pushed, and left with little to no comfort, while being degraded by a parent.

Vulnerability and resilience among children continues to be a popular topic in research of developmental psychology. The two definitions are closely tied together as they are considered both sides to the spectrum. Schaffer (2006) defines vulnerability and resilience “as the susceptibility to develop malfunctioning following exposure to stressful life events, as opposed to the capacity to maintain competent functioning stress”. If stressful life events are the trigger here, why is it that some children are far more vulnerable, yet others are more resilient? The three studies discussed in this paper will attempt to explain why these differences occur and what can we do to enhance protective factors.

According to the article, “Stress and Child Development” (2014) by Ross Thompson, stress is defined as “a complex psychobiological process with biological, emotional, mental, and behavioral consequences, all of which influence one another” (Thompson, 2014, p.46). Thompson’s research provided insight into helping children who suffer from stress, and cope with this stress through neurobiological processes, including two-generation and multi-generation intervention, which includes parents, teachers, relatives and grandparents or anyone who provides care for these children. Thompson’s research found that children who grow up in a loving environment are less stressful, and when confronted with stress, these children cope with stress better than children who live in a non-loving environment. Thompson suggested that stress is brought on when an individual feels threatened or when her or she feels surrounded by, or in immediate danger, thus, emphasizing how a child’s social experiences plays a key role in the development of a child’s neurological systems as well as his or her biological system (Thompson, 2014). Thompson’s research of Hurricane Katrina found that children whose parents could no longer provide care for their children faired much worse than children whose parents provided care, as it relates to stress. Thompson’s study of a Romanian orphanage found that the sooner a child was adopted into a loving environment, the sooner a child learned how to cope and