Parental Involvement Affects Child Development

Some teen parents may think that their child sleeps to much or to late. But, as children turn into teens there is a shift in their circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm regulates the timing of periods of sleepiness and wakefulness throughout the day. The shift in the circadian rhythm that teens experience causes them to not feel tired until about 10:00 or 11:00 pm. This shows that in order for teens to get the suggested amount of sleep they should not have to wake up until 7:00 or 8:00. Also, due to the biology of the human development, sleep mechanisms don’t allow teens to fully wake before 8:00 am. This is because the secretion of the sleep hormone melatonin begins at about 10:45 p.m. and continues until about 8 am. What this means is that it is difficult for teenagers to fall asleep until melatonin secretion begins and hard to wake up until the melatonin secretion stops. Children however, In 2014, The American Academy of Pediatrics called the problem of tired teens a public health epidemic. This shows that tired teens is not just a problem in a certain state. It affects the majority of America. Mary Carskadon, a professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University, is nationally recognized for her teen sleep expertise. She studied sleep and academic performance. Carskadon and her colleagues surveyed 3,000 high school students and

The consequences of sleep deprivation during the teenage years are particularly serious. Teens spend a great portion of each day in school when it starts early; resulting in a lack of sleep. Ultimately, sleep deprivation affects a student’s academic performance. When students lose sleep, they disrupt their sleep cycles and their bodies respond by decreasing their ability to concentrate and complete complex tasks. A prolonged period of cumulative sleep deprivation will affect their physical and mental well-being and consequently their capacity to learn.

Sleep loss can take a devastating toll on the mind and body at any stage of life from early childhood to older adulthood. But, for teenagers, who are at a critical stage of development, skipping out on sleep can be particularly dangerous. One standout finding is that a lack of sleep affects the body the same way that drinking alcohol does. And like alcohol an insufficient amount of sleep can lead to impairments of mood, affect regulation, attention, memory, behavior control, executive function, and quality of life. In a study of nearly 28,000 suburban high school students, published earlier this year in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, found that each hour of lost sleep is associated with a 38 percent risk of feeling sad or hopeless and a 58 percent increase in suicide attempts. As well teens who sleep an average of six hours per night are also three times more likely to suffer from depression, a 2010 study found. Thus, the correlation between sleep deprivation and depression go hand in hand among teenagers. Also, losing sleep can also have a long-term negative effect on a teens physical health with poor sleep quality being linked to diabetes and obesity risk for teens. Sleep correlates with the well-being of teens, but it also closely relates with academic

"Sleep deprivation among american teenagers is an american epidemic," says Wendy Troxel, a sleep researcher. What she is trying to say is that the fact that kids all over america lose the sleep they need is a widespread problem. She even has a entire ‘Ted Talk’ saying how bad sleep is for children's learning and developing brains, and how school is responsible for many of those problems. Kids need to have sleep to function and get good grades.

In addition, with such high academic demands, extracurriculars, volunteer work, and sometimes jobs the children become sleep deprived without even knowing it. Yuan, a clinical associate professor of pediatrics, says, “They say they are tired, but they don’t realize they are actually sleep-deprived. And if you ask kids to remove an activity they would rather not. They would rather give up sleep than an activity” (Richter). Regardless of where they come from of who they are, most teens don’t sleep enough during the week and sleep in on the weekends to compensate for lost sleep. But, many accumulate large amounts of sleep loss that they don’t sufficiently recover on the weekend and become fatigued when Monday comes. This problem needs to be confronted, but with not much importance in today's society it's hard to make a change like pushing back school start times.

Years ago, children used to spend most of their time with their parents. They worked with their families on the farm, in a shop, or learning their father’s trade. Girls worked alongside their mothers, helping with household chores, doing laundry, helping with younger siblings and cooking and baking. Most children were also schooled in their own homes and so children saw their parents all day long. It was easy for a parent to be a part of their children’s life and have influence over them. Now, children enter day care or early pre-school and are in school all day long. At first children are more influenced by parents when they are young, but become more influenced by their friends as they get older unless parents make a major effort to be a

• Uninvolved parenting: children of uninvolved parents develop a sense that other aspects of the parents’ life are more important than they are. The child often attempt to provide for themselves, sometimes halt dependence on the parent to have a feeling of independence and mature beyond their years. Child from this environment often withdraw from social situations, this also impacts there relationships later on in life and they show patterns of truancy and delinquency.

At its peak, the combination of these two biological changes leads to a loss of two to three hours sleep every school day. Thus, a 07:00 alarm call for older adolescents is the equivalent of a 04:30 start for a teacher in their 50s. Failure to adjust education timetables to this biological change leads to systematic, chronic and unrecoverable sleep loss. This level of sleep loss causes impairment to physiological, metabolic and psychological health in adolescents while they are undergoing other major physical and neurological changes."

“Chronic sleep loss in children and adolescents is one of the most common – and easily fixable – public health issues in the U.S. today. The research is clear that adolescents who get enough sleep have a reduced risk of being overweight or suffering depression, are less likely to be involved in automobile accidents, and have better grades, higher standardized test scores and an overall better quality of life. Studies have shown that delaying early school start times is one key factor that can help adolescents get the sleep they need to grow and learn.” (qtd. in Strauss)

Sleep is as essential to people as food and water. It is what recharges us after a long day, and gives our bodies a chance to heal and grow. So why don’t teenagers get enough of it? Teenagers today are faced with this devastating problem, called sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation is when a person does not get enough sleep, which can rapidly lead to deadly health effects (Pietrangelo 1). This problem is serious, especially for adolescents, and should be addressed in an environment where teens feel fine with facing the severity of the issue. The most pressing teenage issue today that Dearborn Public Schools should address in the classroom is sleep deprivation since sleep deprivation causes lifelong mental health issues, it creates severe physical health problems,

Today´s Exhausted Super Kids, written by Frank Bruni, addresses one of the most prevalent debate topics about academic life today: sleep. Bruni detailed many studies including one that found more than half of American teenagers get less than the recommended amount of sleep for their age. He also mentioned other contributing factors to sleep loss besides stress from schoolwork, but the essay's main focus was lack of sleep caused by stress.

With class starting at 8:30 AM, extracurricular activities extending well past 8 PM, students working in after school jobs, trying to keep up on the constant demand of homework: high school students put getting a solid eight hours of sleep or even a quick power nap, at the bottom of their to-do lists. "Over-packed schedules and 12-hour days are draining already sleep-deprived teenagers. In high schools where most students go onto college, the pressure to excel inside and outside of the classroom leaves students with little time to relax." ("Power Napping," 1996). Lack of sleep is accepted as a part of high school. We've all seen our classmates fall asleep during a history lecture or video. The problem is that students are forced to stay up most of the night finishing projects and papers or studying for their tests the next day. Some argue that if teenagers would manage their time better, they could sleep enough at night, but with the competitiveness of students and the many activities they are involved in, they don't have a lot of time left.Sleep loss can take a devastating toll on the mind and body at any stage of life, from early childhood to older adulthood. But for teenagers, who are at a critical stage of development, skipping out on sleep can be particularly dangerous.In the teen years, when development continues the sleep deprivation effects of brain and body development are significant. Naps in school are usually frowned upon, but it

Children that live under the roof of households were parents are uninvolved display rebellious behavior because of their craving for attention, affection and love, that is absent. Hughes asserts, “The type of household a child grows up in is strongly correlated with the behaviors exhibited throughout development.” Because of the inactiveness of the parent in their child’s life, children who are neglected by their parents find it difficult to socialize as they never got the experience with their parents . Behavioral problems derives from the fact that there are no active participants in the nurturing of the child, cultivation of virtue or to provide a sense of direction. Therefore, the adolescent’s development is impaired and academic performance is low.

Frank A. Clark once said, “the most important thing that parents can teach their children is how to get along without them.” Parental influence is a driving force in the social and mental development of children, providing “a strong and secure attachment… [that] is the core of developing resilience and a healthy personality. It strengthens a child’s ability to cope with stress, regulates emotions, provides social support, and forms nurturing relationships.” (Odhayani 1)

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