Stress and Childhood

There are many stressors that children around the world experience on a daily basis. Some of these stressors include war, poverty, hunger, natural disasters, disease, chaos and violence. Thankfully, I never had to experience any of those stressors as a child. While it's common to think about those stressors as things that happen "somewhere else" it's important to remember that children in your own neighborhood may be experiencing any one of them.

My assignment for this week is to share a stressor that I or someone I know experienced as a child. While I don't know many people who have had major stress in their childhood, I will share a little about my dad's early life.

Part 1
My dad was born in 1955 and was the first child to my grandmother, who was a very young teenager at the time. Both of my dad's parents eventually married and had five more children together. Things were not always easy for their family. My grandparents were often in and out of work and moved frequently, forcing my dad and his siblings to change schools many times. In addition to all of the changes and chaos at home, my dad had a couple of not-so-nice teachers at his schools. He ended up having to repeat 3rd grade and has some terrible memories of his first third grade year. While he was still a child, my dad's parents were divorced and his dad was in prison for a while. Despite all of the chaos around him, my dad knew that he needed to work hard to get through life. He even chose to live out of his car for a while in high school just so he could finish his school year instead of moving again with his family.

My dad was able to get through all of this because of his strong faith in Jesus. He knew that God would protect him and help him through the hard times. His aunt, Janet, was a strong influence on his faith life.

After school, my dad joined the U.S. Air Force and eventually worked his way up to being a Chief Master Sergeant before retiring in 2006. He and my mom have been happily married for over 30 years and have been wonderful parents to my sister and I. My dad raised his family in an entirely different environment than the one he knew as a child. Today, my dad spends his time involved in a prison ministry at his church. He builds relationships with those who are incarcerated and tells them how God teaches us to lead lives that are pleasing to him. My dad encourages the men he meets with to be good fathers and to provide for their children.

Part 2
The Philippines has been headlining the news since Typhoon Haiyan hit land in early November. As if there weren't already some major stressors affecting children in the Philippines, there is now a natural disaster affecting thousands of people.

My husband and I have been sponsoring a little boy from Zamboanga in the Philippines since 2008. When looking at all of the children in need on the Compassion International website, it was nearly impossible to pick just one child by scanning the photos. We decided to sponsor Aldren because his birthday was the same as our wedding day.

Children in this area of the Philippines are constantly facing battles against the unknown (n.d.). In this area 33% of the population lives on less than $1 per day. The global food crisis has also affected people in this region. They never know if there will be enough rain for the crops in a given year. Where Aldren lives there is not steady income. Due to poverty, many children drop out of school to work farming crops. They are forced to work long hours for little pay.

These stressors can be very harmful to young children. In her book The Developing Person Through Childhood, Berger (2012) writes, "If the brain produces an overabundance of stress hormones early in life, sometimes that damages the brain's later functioning. The brain might produce either too many stress hormones, making the child and then the adult hyper-vigilant, or too few, making the person emotionally flat" (p.139).

So what's being done to prevent this? There are many wonderful organizations committed to ending childhood hunger, violence and other situations that cause extreme stress in children and adults. Check out some of these websites for more information...

Feed My Starving Children

Bread for the World

Compassion International

World Vision

UNICEF

American Red Cross

References

Berger, K. S. (2012). The developing person through childhood (6th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.

Children and Poverty (n.d.). In Compassion. Retrieved November 23, 2013 from http://www.compassion.com/children-and-poverty.htm.