Children becoming stressed by modern pressures, says psychologist
Thursday 25th August 2011, 2:29PM BST.
MENTAL health problems in children have been rising by 10% a year since 2007.
Modern pressures such as exams, family break-ups and the rise of cyber-bullying conspire to make life harder for today’s youngsters, a Health and Social Services Department expert has confirmed.
Consultant clinical psychologist Dr James Murray (pictured) said projections show the child and adolescent mental health team will have seen 480 five-to-18 year olds by the end of 2011 – 80 more than in 2007.
Dr Murray believed that children were under more pressure than ever, leading to an increase in depression, anxiety, eating disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorders. ‘We notice that we have children of 10 and 11 coming in stressed and getting worried about how they will do in exams, where they will be going to school and if their friends will be going elsewhere.’
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I wonder if it simply a coincidence that diagnosis of mental health “diseases” is rising in proportion with the number of psycologists????
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Get the pampered little dears off their (mostly) overweight butts, deprive them of their precious gadgets for a month or two, and introduce them to the joys of exercise, which is one of the best stress busters you can get. Start by banning them from getting into a car for any journey of less than a mile and make them walk instead – whatever the weather!
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Children become stressed about their exams because some parents put too much pressure on them to ‘succeed’. Sir Winston Churchill was a success despite his exam results.
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Well we had it tough : we lived in a shoe box in the middle of the road. Every morning we had to lick road clean with tongue, walk 160 miles to school, and only had a hanful of hot gravel to eat for dinner.
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Modern pressures?…….Kids have never had it so good!!
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What would you expect to hear from a man whose career is founded on the medicalisation of what would, in earlier times, have been considered all part of the normal human experience. Health care professionals are too quick to diagnose any non standard behaviour as illness.
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What constitutes ‘an expert’? Dr Murray seems to think he has hit an already recognised problem on the head. Look further beyond your highly paid box Dr M – all children have access to all kinds of pressure and stress, mostly due to that, that their parents enable them to have exposure to; ‘Young’ mags, their own mobiles, their own websites, adult type birthday parties, adult type party frocks, hair and nail salon sessions for their little friends, and so on, parents do seem to love outdoing each other.
As for our young ones having nerves re, starting a new school, worried about exams, I assume Dr M refers to senior schooling?, if their friends will be there ??; this is not a new concept or concern, in fact, quite a natural one, and one I experienced some years ago. I survived and have thrived, thanks to my parents.
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I believe there is more exposure to stress for children in the early Twenty-First Century. The rise of the internet, of so called social networking sites like Facebook, of mobile phones etc do mean that children can be bullied morning, noon and night; whereas in ye olden days (when most of the people who have commented on this story so far were in their pomp) the bullying would at least stop at the end of the school day when you got beyond the school gates. Modern technology is used to perpetuate bad as well as good.
The other factor that is piling on the stress and strain is the fact that family life these days is much different from even 30 or 40 years ago – family breakdown and divorce exert massive adverse influences on children nowadays, especially when the Divorce Advocates get called in to exert their malignant, greedy influence. How many people, who, as adults, have low self-esteem and other anxiety issues can trace back many of their problems due to the fact that their parents’ marriage collapsed in acrimony and anger?
Maybe some people on here should understand a little more and judge a little less?
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Some good points raised above which can be distilled into one fundamental question – where do these pressures come from?
The overwhelming majority of the time they come from adults – whether in the form of pushy parents who get their kicks from bragging about little Johnny’s successes; lazy parents who let the TV or Playstation bring up their children or greedy corporations who try their utmost to turn kids into materialistic consumers before they’ve even left the womb.
Let children be children and teach them about real values – and as Martino says get some exercise!
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Some say that ” Love conkers all ” Is that the answer to all our problems ?
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Some good points Chris. As an IT professional I don’t want to scaremonger about kids and the Internet as access to technology can be a real force for good for a number of reasons.
Like everything involving children though it needs to be properly regulated and controlled, with appropriate boundaries set by parents and responsible adults.
Technology can be addictive, especially social networking and gaming. The social networking issue is only going to get bigger as well – and it’s still relatively new so we haven’t had time to assess the long term impacts on young minds.
Then there is the huge volume of information available on the Internet – I honestly don’t think children’s brains can handle that amount of raw data, especially when you consider that many adults find it difficult enough. Then of course there is the bullying question.
All things considered one really does have to ask the question whether it is wise to allow young children access to mobile Internet-enabled gadgets (or even mobile phones) when they are almost impossible to supervise. Not to mention unsupervised access to the Internet, even at home.
I don’t buy the argument that it means kids can get in touch in an emergency, as we’ve survived without that for long enough – especially on a small island like Guernsey. I can’t help but think the cons outweigh the pros quite significantly.
That said, I don’t think we can legislate on what is a “healthy age” for exposure to these technologies as children are different and develop at different speeds. What we should be doing though is thinking carefully about what effect this information overload and constant accessibility is having on our children’s minds.
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A J: Had to larf. Love conkers all? I thought you were talking about the pressure of kids playing conkers at school.
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A.J.
My opinion on the subject is that “brats” should be put in their place from a very early age, have respect and discipline instilled in their every action from the time they start walking and talking and then given small rewards as they progress.
DISCIPLINE conquers, LOVE can destroy discipline. Love should be given as a reward for correct behaviour, in times of difficulty and as a bonding tool for correct family values. Love should not be smothering or the “brats” will soon learn to use that against the parents to their advantage.
The word should be DISCIPLINE, DISCIPLINE, DISCIPLINE.
The “brats” will only get stressed if they don`t get their own way after being molly-coddled through their early years. Bring them up to expect good things only when they earn them and there will be no stress.
I think Vondell`s reply hits the nail on the head. How else can the Psychiatrists maintain their stress free lifestyles?
It`s like politicians saying they need a better salary and then voting for their own payrise. What idiot is going to vote contre to that?
I think a more apt quotation would be “SPARE THE ROD, SPOIL THE CHILD.”
BRING BACK THE BIRCH AND BORSTAL.
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Yes, children these days are facing more pressure, more homework and more after school activities.
I’m 41 and when I was a child I had much more free time than children today seem to have.
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They are probably suffering from boredom
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A lot of the problems seem to lie in the fact that some parents are ill equipped mentally to have children in the first place. The parents are not able to instill the sort of moral behaviour in their children which used to be the norm. One only has to take a look around our roads during the school holidays to see exactly how much time parents spend with their children. If Vauvert is anything to go by, the parents are happy for their kids to play in the roads all day every day – and never supervise them at all!
i dont know about other 40 pluses – but i wasn’t always “stimulated” as a child – I had lots of times when I told my parents I was “bored”. That’s life! Get over it!
There are stresses for our kids, but I have found that these sometimes stem from bullying from children whose parents are totally ineffectual and don’t care how their children impact on those less able to deal with these things. Its about time parents took back control of their children and taught them right from wrong – society is not to blame.
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Chris – surely they can just turn their phones off if they want it to stop.
Bullying over an email/phone is just the same as being punched in the face, i.e. it scars the person mentally.
These things have gone on since Adam was a lad, only nowadays we have better intervention / clinical ‘measures’.
While the Doctor refers to exams and children worrying about friends he fails to realise that stress permeates stress. Since 2007 something happened. What was that? Oh yes, I know, it’s called a global recession where everyone is in doom and gloom mode.
Children in particular are hoovers and pick up every nuance of stress from adults. I imagine adult visits are also up (they are elsewhere).
Best thing they can do is have more sports so the kids can expend energy and get fit, rather than being on PC’s/Mobiles etc.
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Who not let them play ‘conkers’. I used to find it relaxing, but then that was before the days of ‘Health and Safety’
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‘Nocon’ I’m with you all the way. Not forgeting to use lots and lots of common sense.
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nocon – I’m not sure how you define love but it is different to my definition, that’s for sure.
Not providing appropriate boundaries for children is not loving. Not giving appropriate, proportional discipline to a child is not loving. Always giving children what they want it not loving. Showing conditional affection only when they behave is not loving.
Discipline is absolutely necessary but it only really works in an environment of love. Both are necessary. Without love it just creates angry, bitter people. Conditional love is not love at all.
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Jason,
I am 48 and yes I did have more time to go OUT and play that is because I didn’t have computers , laptops, playstations etc. My homework was done on those quaint old pen and paper things that we very rarely see these days in a schoolkids bag , Calculators were new and BANNED from the classroom and yet we passed our exams.
Wish I was a child of today …
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Darren
I will of course bow to the greater knowledge of Vic Gamble if required but are you sure that Adam was ever a lad?
Didn’t the good Lord make him in fully grown up form out of a fig leaf or an apple before ripping out one of his ribs to make the lass Eve from whence we all derive?
I’m pretty sure I read that in a book I was given to prevent me getting bored in the early fifties
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Paul LP, I couldn`t have written it better myself.
I miss the days when there were no mobiles or computers at school (I`m 45).
I too favour more exercise for the kids.
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Oh Dear.. how worrying… better give Dr Murray a 10% pay rise for the extra work load ! !
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I’m not sure that the increase in cases of stress is genuine and not that people have become more aware of it, better at spotting it and more willing to accept treatment.
Stress is an inevitable part of life and we should give children the tools to deal with it. If all children (particularly those preparing for exams) were taught some basic stress management techniques there might be a few less of them might ending up in Dr Murrays office.
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There is concern over this topic nationally in the UK: read http://ipnosis.postle.net/childhood.htm to see an open letter signed by 100 professionals on “toxic childhood”.
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hot gravel? you were lucky! We had to work 28 hours a day and pay mill owner privalage of working, have a cupful of cold poison and our dads would kill us everynight before we went to bed!
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Divorce and separation have more impact on a childs mental state than any gadget or gizmo. Divorce and separation tear lives apart. How are parents able to teach their children any self discipline or provide stability when they don’t have that in their own lives. Funds directed at keeping families together will significantly decrease costs spent on mental health for everyone – including children.
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I feel that there is a vacuum in comments from the age group discussed in this article. I am from that age group.
Firstly, Martino’s is one of the most prejudiced replies I have seen on a GP thread for some time. As for ‘mostly’ overweight; the percentage of overweight adults is significantly more than the percentage of overweight children. The latter is most certainly under 50%, so you’re wrong on that one. Why you think that children should have to walk everywhere ‘whatever the weather’ is quite beyond me – I’m sure you wouldn’t like to… the relevance of this extraordinary proposition has to be questioned.
Meanwhile, Mark ought to bear in mind that ‘Kids have never had it so good!!’ is painfully similar to what Harold Macmillan said not so long ago. He was later forced to resign after a series of scandals which were arguably symptomatic of the moral breakdown of British society during the 1960s.
Latterly, nocon’s opinions can be summed up by his reference to ‘brats’. I don’t want and don’t need the birch or the borstal!!! These blinkered, retrospective and frankly ignorant comments irritate me to say the least. Each time you advocate hitting someone with a birch (which is morally reprehensible in its own right), you should have it done to you.
Divorce is a strain and obviously psychologists weren’t around in years gone by… so numbers of diagnoses will have gone up, ergo. However, bad parenting by those with a lack of moral fibre is also to blame – hence children scattered liberally all over Vauvert for most of the summer holidays. In short, it isn’t always our fault (except for a minority of yobs… same in the adult population) and the more cruel amongst you are so keen to pin it on us. That’s what really annoys me.
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Well said Ed
The problem is that only the really bad juveniles or those who perform some outstanding act of ‘goodness’ ever make the news
The remaining 98% ? of ordinary decent youngsters don’t get a mention
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