Consequences of Stress on Children's Development

Poverty

My childhood and adolescent years were not very predictable financially.  My mother had substance issues that haunted her throughout my developing years.  When she was clean, which could be a couple years or a couple of days at a time, we were stable and predictable.  At her worst times, we experienced poverty, unpredictable living conditions, and high levels of stress.  I have memories of grocery shopping at the dollar store and helping my mother clean out repossessed manufactured homes as a teenager to get by.  At times, I was highly impacted, unable to focus in school and maintain social relationships.  Often, I lost myself in fantasy literature and began to distance myself from my home as I got older.  I rarely invited friends to my house, with fear of what state my house or mother was in.  I learned how to develop a life that existed outside of the physical home and state I was in.

I was fortunate enough to have family and friends surrounding me to lend support in taking care of me during these times.  My aunt often took me on weekends and made sure I was taken care of throughout my childhood.  I made a couple best friends early on and practically lived at their houses while growing up.  I also attended childcare, preschool, and after-school programs when my mom did work.  I took a little from each of the support systems I had around to keep myself grounded and understand my circumstances were only environmental.  I was a resilient child and leaned on my resources when I needed to.  They helped me believe that I was an important person and was not bound by my story and could be successful in the future.

In Breaking the cycle of poverty: challenges for European early childhood education and care (2014), Leseman & Slot discussed childhood poverty in European countries and the impacts of high-quality education in early childhood.  They have found that early childhood education and care (ECEC) can be one of the most important components to battling the war on childhood poverty (Leseman, & Slot, 2014).  Childhood poverty and high levels of stress can result in developmental delays, poor academic skills, challenging behaviors, and lack of emotional-regulation (Leseman, & Slot, 2014).  Just as I mentioned, in my personal experience, it was found that the support system and values surrounding the child determined the success of breaking the poverty cycle through early education experiences.  The more support the child has surrounding them, the greater chances of exiting the poverty cycle.  However, the cultural values of the family must accept and believe in the philosophy of early education services for the child to benefit from the experience.

Children form cultural identities through the values that are supported in their home and educational environments that may require the child to assimilate to the environment, such as dual language learners. Leseman & Slot found, “among youth in 13 European countries…that immigrant youth have better mental health, better school achievement and integrate better in countries that do not force assimilation, but instead support maintenance of the minority’s own language and culture (Leseman, & Slot, 2014, p. 8).  Children are sensitive to how the world views them in the early years and need guidance on how to value themselves and the various cultures they belong to. 

The westernized values in my own family understood the importance of utilizing resources such as family members and educational services.  I qualified for early educational and intervention services due to risk factors, and luckily my mother supported the use of them.  However, not all children are fortunate to have such a positive ending as mine.  As Leseman & Slot mentioned, the work of early childhood education and care are not meeting high-quality standards in most countries and nations.  We need to focus on the amount of families that have access, the availability of the services to these families, the quality of the services, reaching the most disadvantaged families that may not have direct access to services due to rural reasons, and creating a relationship with families of mutual respect and develop a partnership (Leseman, & Slot, 2014).  As early childhood professionals, we need to keep striving to improve the services we are providing to our most fragile families.

Resources

P.P.M. Leseman, & P.L. Slot (2014, Sept). Breaking the cycle of poverty: challenges for European early childhood education and care. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 22(3), 314-326.