The Affects Of Family Stress On Children

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Have you ever wondered what family stress does to children? Well stress is an everyday thing that comes up in a human’s life. Did you know that three-fourths of the human population undergoes stress in varying levels in a 2-week period. Stress can also cause sleep insomnia as well. So I found out how family stress harms children’s brain development.
People often ask, “what is stress?” “Stress is our body’s way of creating energy when faced with a perceived danger,” according to Academic Success Center, page 1. There are two types of stress, one is called eustress and the other is called distress. Distress is the type of stress that makes you aggravated. “Maybe you didn't mean to snap at them in anger, but you just couldn't keep it in any longer?
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Stress can affect children in a positive, tolerable, and toxic way. Positive stress is healthy for children by making them more aware of things around them. According to Center of the Developing Child, Harvard University, “Positive stress response is a normal and essential part of healthy development, characterized by brief increases in heart rate and mild elevations in hormone levels,” according to Center of the Developing Child, Harvard University. Tolerable stress is when a child is more alert about their surroundings. “Tolerable stress response activates the body’s alert systems to a greater degree as a result of more severe, longer-lasting difficulties, such as the loss of a loved one, a natural disaster, or a frightening injury. If the activation is time-limited and buffered by relationships with adults who help the child adapt, the brain and other organs recover from what might otherwise be damaging effects,” quoted from Center of the Developing Child, Harvard …show more content…
This is when a child is physically attacked or exposed to violence. “Toxic stress response can occur when a child experiences strong, frequent, and/or prolonged adversity—such as physical or emotional abuse, chronic neglect, caregiver substance abuse or mental illness, exposure to violence, and/or the accumulated burdens of family economic hardship—without adequate adult support. This kind of prolonged activation of the stress response systems can disrupt the development of brain architecture and other organ systems, and increase the risk for stress-related disease and cognitive impairment, well into the adult years,” said Center of the Developing Child, Harvard University. You probably didn’t know that when children get stressed out it could be very harmful to them.
Family stress affects children more than any other stressful experience. There is normal stress in a family that doesn’t affect a child so much like adjusting to a new living household or a parent getting unemployed, but there could be harmful stress like famine or losing a loved