How the Economic Recession Will Lead to Behavior Challenges in Children

The economic recession is pushing both mothers and fathers in the workforce. One income families are hardly surviving. To make both ends meet in the home finances area, husbands and wives have no other alternative but to seek child care for their babies.

How will the present economic recession affect the behavior of our future generation?

The stress of financial hardship has a direct negative effect in raising children. Many mothers are put on "survival mode" depending on their trauma history in their childhood. The financial hardship can trigger some negative memories in their childhood causing intense fear. The stress will be undetected at first. If the financial situation does not improve, mothers will react negatively to her surrounding. She will be hyper vigilant to her husband. Her tolerance for her children, when they are in stress, will be severely impacted. She will be high strung. She will be emotionally unavailable to her children. The quality of care to her children will also be affected. Her ability to show nurturing and secure love will depend on her ability to handle the financial stresses in her life.

Behavior challenges in children arise from lack of maternal bonding in their formative years. The crucial years in a child's life are from birth to three years old. It is in these years that a child learns to regulate his emotions in varying circumstances. An emotionally available mother can soothe a child who is acting out. She will offer unlimited compassion. On the other side, a frazzled mother will respond irritably.

How do you react when you are stressed out? Unfortunately, most mothers respond inappropriately. Some mothers lose it by yelling. Some mothers cannot think clearly and nag. Some mothers discipline with spanking and hitting. Thus, the child is unable to grow in a secure predictable environment during difficult times. The child is unable to react positively to fear.

In this fear-based scenario, the child is traumatized. A child acts out his inner disturbances. He interprets his mother's behavior and anger in a child-like reasoning. He begins to think of himself as "bad" and the cause of his mother's rage. They go into a "survival mode" too. This means that the regulatory system of the child is channeled to being alert. These children will perceive the world as threatening. The resulting behavior will be a stressed out child incapable of forming healthy relationships.

In the first three years of life, studies have shown that brain connections and wirings are enhanced based on a child's experiences. When a child is neglected and traumatized, these connections will have gaps.

The mother has a critical role. In normal circumstances, the mother can rock the baby, hold him, feed him and find out what is causing the discomfort if baby cries inconsolably. In the absence of a mother, an unresponsive caregiver will become impatient and ignore the baby. The baby will cry more until it reaches a point of stress that their body shuts down. The baby stops crying out of extreme exhaustion. The baby will now react in fear the next time. Series of interactions with the uncaring babysitter will create a child with poor stress response system. The result will be children who will not know how to calm down resulting to behaviorally-challenged children.

Conclusion:

Mental illness and disorders will rise dramatically in the next few years. The present economic recession will see an increase of behavior challenges in children. The unavailability of mothers in a baby's critical formative years will result to "attachment" problems. Lack of maternal bonding is a direct cause of many disorders today. Many behaviors of children will be misdiagnosed as Attention Deficit Disorder. Most of the disorders will include oppositional attitudes. It will include frequent and intense anger outbursts. Children will appear manipulative or controlling. Some of them will have little or no conscience. They can be destructive to self, others, and properties. In the next three years, as a consequence of an economic recession, it is safe to assume that many children will soon be labeled as "disturbed".

Source:

"Reactive Attachment Disorder: A New Understanding", Beyond Consequences Institute