“It's not simply learning,... It's stability. Stability is essential in the lives of children.” -Pedro Noguera. Children worry about having dinner every night if their car will work in the morning if mom or dad will come back home, or if the heat will be turned back on. The church introduces this issue with the Catholic Social Teaching of the Call to Family, Community, and Participation and Life and Dignity of the Human Person. It is a social injustice that children experience instability due to divorce, homelessness, and toxic stress. A few schools have noticed this and wanted to help the children. They started programs that are designed to help kids.
Homelessness is an important factor of instability in children's lives. “Low family income tends to negatively affect social-emotional, cognitive and academic abilities as children grow up.”(The Effects of Growing Up in an Unstable Environment.) When a family doesn't have a definite place to stay every night or a place to call their own it creates long-lasting issues for not only the children but also the whole family. An example of an issue that could arise socially and emotionally for a child is if they want to have a sleepover with a friend they can’t. Not being able to participate in fun activities with friends early on could make a child feel like an outcast and very lonely. “Twelve percent of all Americans change residences in a given year”. (How Instability Affects Kids). This statistic is very interesting because there are a large number of people. For instance, if a family keeps moving frequently then the child(ren) may never learn social or academic skills. This could result in lower academic scores. Parents not having a job can affect grade retention, lower educational attainment, and internalizing or externalizing behaviors. (The Effects of Growing Up in an Unstable Environment. )
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Divorce or parental separation can result in instability issues. “Children from single-parent families had twice the incidence of psychiatric illness, suicide attempts, and alcohol abuse problems.” (Kelly, John). Children automatically find a parent to choose as a “favorite” and sometimes it can have negative outcomes. Divorce is a long-term event that can last for a very long time and overwhelm a family. When children have to go back and forth between their parents’ houses it becomes frustrating and overwhelming. Unfortunately, some parents ask their kids questions about the other parent trying to get insight into the other parent. (How Instability Affects Kids).
Though stress is a part of life and we can not avoid it, some stress is very bad. Toxic stress is when someone lives through devastating or life-changing times. “Children exposed to toxic stress are at a greater risk for poor health outcomes such as heart disease and depression in adulthood.” (Fail, Too Small to). Heart disease and depression are outcomes of instability because all of the stress can hurt the heart and brain. If all a child is doing is fighting and moving around their whole life of course they will become depressed. They may become depressed because they don’t create strong friendships. Although stress is unavoidable and is part of life it is not ok if children have to worry about things that are adult topics. Toxic stress is not something that children should have to deal with. Parents should make sure that everyday children are getting the fundamentals of life. They do not need to be dealing with devastating disasters such as losing their home or not having food.
Programs such as Little Sibs have proven to be an effective way to help kids learn healthy coping mechanisms. Little Sibs is when a high school student is partnered with an elementary student. The coordinator(s) of this program spend a lot of time and thought about who is paired together. The high school student and elementary student spend quality time together, this helps the child feel a sense of stability and community.
A way to help instability is during school hours to have teachers spend one-on-one time with children. Some children may be too scared to ask questions in front of a whole class. That is why schools should make it a routine for children to get individual attention from a teacher or guidance counselor. I understand that this will be difficult but it is possible and important for children. When a teacher shows each child individual attention it gives children reassurance and a sense of importance. Children have a good memory of who gives positive attention. If a child is discouraged too many times they may stop trying to better themselves. Adults need to be positive but still honest with a child. A way to critique children is to tell them two things they did right and one they did wrong. This helps children because it starts with a positive and ends with a positive.
The Catholic Church is very involved with the issue of instability in children's lives. Pope Francis had a meeting and gave a long speech to the ]community. “Stability of the family is integral for the future, and such stability is created when founded upon the faithful and lasting relationship of a man and woman.” (Brockhaus). The Pope goes on about how important giving attention to children is. He expresses how the future relies on children so it is our job to make sure they succeed as much as they can.
A study found that depriving children of a loving environment can cause them to have lower IQs and even stunted growth leading to a shorter stature. They also tended to have more behavioral and psychological problems than children who came from a more loving home. (The Effects of Growing Up in an Unstable Environment). The Catholic Social Teaching of Call to Family, Community, and Participation is very important. This catholic social teaching is involved with instability in children's lives because every child deserves a family and community that is supportive and loving. There is a lot of work to do to help every child in the world have the best possible life but it is possible.
The Catholic Social Teaching of Life and Dignity of the Human Person. Every person in this world has dignity and a purpose. No matter what mistakes people make God will always love everyone. If we want to be the best possible followers of God then part of that is helping other people. Jesus came down to Earth to show everyone how to properly teach others to be the best person they can be. We have had a prime example of a good Christian person. The life of children is the most important thing in the world. Children are innocent and do not know how hard the world can be. However, if they have positive and responsible role models in their lives they can learn how to teach other people to be good Christians.
The issue of instability is important because instability needs to be resolved or at least become less of an issue. It is a big task to help children with instability it is possible through God. If we do not help these children then we can not complain if the world is not how we want it.
In conclusion, children need more position attention and interaction with positive role models. These role models could be teachers, aunts, uncles, grandparents, guidance counselors, or high school students. It will be hard but the children are the future and we need to make sure that we give them all the resources and help so they can live their best lives.
Work Cited
- Brockhaus, Hannah. “Pope Francis: The World Needs Stable Families, Relationships.” Catholic News Agency, Catholic News Agency, 8 Jan. 2018, https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-francis-the-world-needs-stable-families-12849.
- Chen, Grace. “Pros and Cons of Public Preschool: The Debate.” Public School Review, 22 Oct. 2008, https://www.publicschoolreview.com/blog/pros-and-cons-of-public-preschool-the-debate.
- Fail, Too Small to. “The Impact of Childhood Instability on Early Brain Development.” Too Small To Fail, http://toosmall.org/blog/early-brain-development-and-childhood-instability.
- Greenwell, Andrew M. “Catholic Social Teaching: The Family, Gift and Sanctuary of Life - Marriage & Family - Home & Family - News.” Catholic Online, Catholic Online, 17 Jan. 2012, www.catholic.org/news/hf/family/story.php?id=44434.
- “How Housing Instability Impacts Individual and Family Well-Being: HUD USER.” How Housing Instability Impacts Individual and Family Well-Being | HUD USER, https://www.huduser.gov/portal/pdredge/pdr-edge-featd-article-020419.html.
- “How Instability Affects Kids.” Institute for Family Studies, https://ifstudies.org/blog/how-instability-affects-kids
- Kelly, John. “Does Single Parenting Affect Children?” HowStuffWorks, HowStuffWorks, 8 Jan. 2010, https://lifestyle.howstuffworks.com/family/parenting/parenting-tips/single-parenting-affect-children.htm.
- “Pope Francis Releases Message for World Mission Day 2019.” Vatican News, 9 June 2019, www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-06/pope-world-mission-day-2019-message.html.
- “The Effects of Growing Up in an Unstable Environment.” Serenity Malibu, 12 Mar. 2019, https://www.serenitymaliburehab.com/effects-growing-unstable-environment/.
- Swallow, Deanna. “The Power of Positive Praise.” North Shore Pediatric Therapy, North Shore Pediatric Therapy, 27 Apr. 2014, https://nspt4kids.com/parenting/the-power-of-positive-praise/.
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