Addressing Psychological Stress In Children

We all get to suffer from psychological stress at one point in a life and children are not an exception to this.

Yes, children too feel stressed out due to multiple reasons.

Understanding causes of psychological stress in children

Now-a-day school academic is an important aspect of children’s life. Not only parent but even children are ambitious about their academic excellence. However, every child is not academically bright. Inability to cope with schoolwork, fear of falling behind classmates and fear of scoring low grades in examinations are important triggers for development of stress and sad feelings.

In today’s modern world, not only academic but children want to excel in extra-curricular activities too. In such cases, handling too many tasks such as study, sports and hobby classes proved to be stressful.

Child’s mind is usually unable to make proper inferences of the situation. Inability to understand, process and cope with unhealthy emotions makes them feel that they have no control over their lives. The most painful part of the human life is to see how others are having good time with friends and family. A person can make all kinds of judgement about own life often in comparison with other.

Teens with low self-esteem always believe that they are unworthy of attention. A physical appearance, disability, academic failure and relationship issues all prone to develop poor self-esteem. Such children dislike almost everything about themselves and consider inferior in comparison to others.

Difficulty in making new friends, inability to fit in peers circle and conflict with friends or classmates could disturb the emotional wellness of student. Human being is a social creature and enjoy being a member of society. However, having small social network creates a deep sense of disconnection from the world around the student.

Role of parents in handling stress in children

If left unmanaged, the high level and persistent stress can negatively affect physical and emotional health of children. In the light of this, effective stress management is the key for growth and development of students.

Implementing some stress management strategies may serve to encourage motivation, promote self-reflection and minimise stress levels in students.

Ensuring relaxed home atmosphere where a child can feel calm, safe and secure is the total responsibility of parents. Parents need to spend quality time with children as much as possible. Make it a habit to sit together for family dinner. Affection and encouragement from parents strengthen relationship and make a child comfortable.

Encourage your child to look challenging situations from various perspective. Teach them about various problem solving methods and the art of giving their best in any catastrophic situation. Encourage them to make choices and learn from experiences.

Learn to listen to your child without being critical. Try to understand their problems. Whatever your child is telling you may be a simple issue for you, but it could be a serious problem from his/her perspective. Don’t be too hard on them. Provide guidance on how to deal with a problem.

Encourage your child to build self-care habits with enough attention on healthy eating, physical activity and sleep. Reduce the habit of screen time by diverting their attention from gadgets to development of healthy habits.

Pursuing hobbies (listening music, dancing, writing, reading, gardening, hiking and photography) is another good way to boost mood. When children do the work they love, they experience less stress.

Teach your child to practice gratitude and kindness. A human mind cannot be fearful and grateful at the same time. When gratitude appears, fear disappear. When your child lives in gratitude, he/she can serve others more freely. Thus, optimism helps to reduce stress and amplifies positive emotions such as happiness, trust and joy.

Parents are the first teacher for every child. Children learned so many things from parents behaviour. So, as a parent first take your own faculties into control, only then you can look for managing the others.

If your child still looks stressful even after trying above mentioned strategies, then it would be better to take professional advice from a mental health expert. Children who are victims of emotional trauma respond well to counselling and psychotherapies.

Disclaimer : The purpose of this blog is to create emotional health awareness. This information is not a replacement for medical treatment or counseling therapy.