Last year, I blogged about the results of a University of Michigan National Poll on Children's Health which named stress as a top health problem, and one of the top 10 health concerns facing children in 2009. This year, the results of the poll are even more pressing: stress has moved up several spots on the list, and is now considered even more of a concern than alcohol abuse, bullying, and teen pregnancy!In May of this year, pollsters asked 2,064 adults to rate 20 different health concerns for children living in their communities. The results are out! The top 10 overall health concerns for U.S. children in 2010 and the percentage of adults who rate each as a "big problem" include:
- Childhood obesity (38 percent)
- Drug abuse (30 percent)
- Smoking (29 percent)
- Internet safety (25 percent)
- Stress (24 percent)
- Bullying (23 percent)
- Teen pregnancy (23 percent)
- Child abuse and neglect (21 percent)
- Alcohol abuse (20 percent)
- Not enough opportunities for physical activity (20 percent)
"Levels of stress among children may relate to economic challenges faced by their families in the national recession and slow recovery," says Davis, who is also associate professor of public policy at the U-M Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.
"The fact that stress now rates higher on the list of child health problems is a reminder that most of the problems on the list are behavioral or psychological in nature. Lawmakers often deal with adults' concerns about making ends meet. In contrast, in times like these children's stress may fly under the policy radar."
While we may not be able to change public policy overnight, nor can we completely eliminate the stressors our children face, there are things we can start doing today to help our children to better cope with stress.
How do you help your kids relieve stress, or relive stress as a family? How did your parents help you to relieve stress as a kid? Share your strategies in the comments section, and please pass this along to others who could use the information.
We cannot wish away the reasons of stress. many are the products of parents’ ambitions, and many others are the result of faulty public policies.
One of the reasons I strongly feel about is downplaying the ‘disciplining’ aspect of the education. For a child, ‘freedom’ does not mean anything. Discipline, though unpleasant, will teach him how to gain and preserve his freedom when it really matters, that is, when he grows up.
The place where I live, in India, we place a lot of emphasis on discipline, and respecting the adults. But, sadly, these positive things are being discarded now in favor of the Western influence, which, I feel, is faulty.
The greatest asset of a person’s personality is self-discipline, which he will not learn, unless he or she has been ‘disciplined’ during the childhood.
Please remember, I am referring to discipline in its positive sense, not the negative sense.
In positive sense it means many things, some of which are – respecting the rules and authority, caring for the feelings of others, respecting the time, respecting the limits on freedom, understanding that freedom comes with responsibility, etc.