Childhood Stress?

We don’t typically associate childhood with stress. Children don’t have bills to pay, demanding jobs or kids of their own to worry over, so why would children possibly be stressed?This may be how we think, but the sad fact is that children today are being diagnosed with high-anxiety, depression and a myriad of other psychological disorders resulting in more children being on psychosomatic drugs now than ever.
Bullying
There was a time when playground bullying was probably the worst source of stress that we could imagine for our children. Someone at school was making their little lives miserable and it was usually a child who was bigger, meaner, tougher, etc. Today we have a whole new arena for bullying. With internet social networking sites so popular, they have opened a door for children to be bullied 24/7, instead of just the seven or eight hours a day that they’re at school.
Recent studies have reported that bullying is affecting more than 1/3 of all school-age children and that more than 160,000 children will miss at least one day of school because of this. Most children reported a fear of speaking to an adult about the bullying out of fear of repercussions or the abuse escalating, so the cycle of stress is never broken.
Hyper-Parenting
Unfortunately another cause of stress for children comes from a surprising source: the parent. We all want what’s best for our kids, like a bright and successful future, but sometimes in our zeal we forget to allow time for them to be children.
If we over-schedule them with organized sports, dance classes, music lessons and self-improvement programs we don’t leave them time to be children. We convince ourselves that it’s best to keep kids busy but we forget that boredom is a catalyst for creativity.
Many children who have been over-scheduled grow to resent the attention placed on their lives and begin to wonder what’s wrong with them. They question why they need so much improvement and refinement, then retreat into a shell of insecurity, finding escape in video games and internet surfing. We lose the child in the pursuit of perfection.
Critical Self-Image
More typical of girls, the time between elementary school and junior high finds young women becoming more critical of their looks. Studies have found that 50% of 13 to 15-year-olds believe that they are overweight and 80% of 13-year-old girls have dieted at least once. Is it any wonder then that young girls are suffering from eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia nervosa? Additional studies have shown that 85% of anorexia patients developed this disorder in their teens.
Fractured Families
Another source of stress for children is the fractured family. Unfortunately, whether we like or not, the divorce rate is high and when children are involved the
collateral damage is greater. Recent studies have concluded that children of divorced parents are statistically more likely to have their own marriages end in divorce.
While every effort is made to help children not place the blame on themselves for the divorce and to teach children healthy ways to resolve issues, the anger between the parents will still sometimes be transferred to the children, increasing their anxiety.
The Serious Outcome
Children today are responding to emotional stressors in ways that we can’t imagine and generally don’t understand. Recent studies have shown that over 10% of all teenagers are self-mutilating, and of this number, 64% are "cutting". Despite the appearance, self-mutilation is not a precursor to suicide but, according to the young people who will talk about it, "the only thing that makes [them] feel better."