Consequences of Stress on Children's Development

While I personal have never experienced a stressor as a child that I can remember but being that I am the youngest out of 6 children I have heard stories of the struggles and violence my siblings had growing up with our parents until they obtained careers that allowed them to move from one social class to another.  My parents married when my mother was 18 years of age and my father was 23 years of age.  My father had a daughter from a previous marriage but she left him when he went in the service and my sister with my father’s mother, father and his siblings.  During his last tour in the service he met my mother and they married in North Carolina, my mother’s home state, and he moved he to Maryland to live.   Every two years they had a child until I was born with a 13 year gap.  It was due to the fact of my mother not having a fulltime job and my father fresh out of the service seeking employment to take care of his growing family, they struggled financially.  My two older sisters became teenage mothers, and the sister that was born before me joined a gang.  My brothers were bullies and fought just like my sister. 

My oldest brother joined the Army as his way of easing his struggles and obtained a federal job upon his discharge thus never returning home.    My two sisters that were teen moms the oldest one had three more children but all of her children were by the same man, my other sister had one more child and obtained a federal job like our mother.  My next to oldest brother went to the community college receiving a engineering degree and obtained a job as a city building inspector and drafter. The youngest brother was a security guard until his health declined and he lost his sight and died 4 years ago from renal kidney disease.  My gang member sister got married straight out of high school and was physically abused by her husband that became an alcoholic.  Upon my family removing her from the situation she joined the police force. 

By the time my parents had their 3th child, my father got a job as a bus driver and my mother had a career opportunity with the federal government.  This opened the way for financial freedom for my family.  When I was born my family moved from the area in which they lived for nearly 20 years and move uptown to a more elite area where doctors, lawyers, school board officials, school teachers, and politicians. This is why I have no idea on struggles during my childhood.

I chose to look at the way children in Europe handle poverty and violence.  The United Kingdom is considered one of the richest countries in the world.  But even they have poverty issues.  It is reported that 3.6 million children growing up in severe poverty.  In London out of 10 children 4 of them are living in poverty.  “England has higher child poverty rates than other developed European countries with seven of the top 10 worst places in London, a study revealed today (MailOnline, 2011)”.  4in10 is a group created in an effort to look into the poverty situation on children in London.  4in10 group spoke to children and young people last month (October 2012) about living in overcrowded homes and the following was reported:

“Masum aged 12, said: ‘I sleep in a bedroom with my mum, dad and everyone. My mum and dad have a double bed where they sleep and right next to their bed is where my little sister sleeps and just behind her cot is my bed where I sleep and it’s not that big.’

Jordan aged 12, said: ‘I do my homework in the living room but it is very noisy. Sometimes it gets so noisy so sometimes I do my homework in the toilet...it’s not nice.’”

 

The child poverty map below from MailOnline shows a country divided between children born into very different lives, some fortunate, some with much poorer life chances.’

 

References:

4in10. (2012). No Space At Home: Overcrowding in London.  Retreived from www.4in10.org.uk

Daily Mail Reporter. (2011). The Child Poverty Capital of Europe: London Worse for Deprived Towns. MailOnline. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1366699/The-child-poverty-capital-Europe-London-worst-deprived-towns.html#ixzz2Cu6YRBCg