CONSEQUENCES OF STRESS ON CHILDREN'S DEVELOPMENT

It isn’t till we are a little older that we identify the stressors in our own lives from childhood. Until we realize what is actually going on in our lives as children I think it is just survival. As resilient as children are many of the stressors they are exposed to as children have a lasting affect on who they become as adults. At least that was the case for me. Racism is a kind of abuse that can be both mental and physical. According to Cynthia Garcia Coll and Laura A. Szalacha in the article The Multiple Contexts of Middle Childhood, racism, is a pervasive and systemic reality in modern American society, inextricably linked to processes of social, political, and economic domination and marginalization (2004). It can be an innocent misunderstanding or it can be very directed and cruel. Whatever the case I believe that racism is taught, learned, or not corrected till it becomes belief. Often times racism is passed on through cultures and subcultures and I am amazed that it continues to thrive despite all the historical outcomes we have seen on its behalf.

Many years ago I was tending to my baby and pushing the grocery cart at a local grocery store. As we scooted into the checkout line we were passed by another mom with daughter in a shopping cart, a quite common event in a grocery store. As they strolled by her daughter with little blond curls bouncing up and down and sheer excitement on her face let out, “MOM, look it’s a chocolate baby.” Her mother quite embarrassed strolled away as quickly as possible. This is an example of the innocence of children. The little girl had obviously not been exposed much if at all to other races different from her own. However, I would have loved to hear the continuing conversation and explanation between mother and daughter from that point on. Children will naturally grow up to be non-racist adults when they live in a non racist society, until then, adults must guide children's anti- racist development (Derman-Sparks, Higa, and Sparks).

In the country of South Africa, children face many of the stressors children face in most parts of the world, Poverty and racism still remaining at the top of the list despite the end of Apartheid. The problem remains in majority populations of “Whites” where most Africans of color simply do not go out of habit or cannot afford to go or live due to socioeconomic status. According to a the South African Ambassador to Vienna, most Africans do not consider color as a definition of race, but rather whether or not you accept and participate in the culture . If you speak the language you are African. In the last ten years, many new laws and programs have been initiated in order to protect young children in South Africa regardless of skin tone. However, there is no recent evidence or studies I could find that South African children are any less affected by the countries racial problems and socioeconomic division of classes even with the end of Apartheid.

 

 

References

Coll, C. and Szalacha, L. (2004). The multiple contexts of middle childhood. Children of Immigrant Families, 14(2)

 

Derman-Sparks, L., Higa, C., and Sparks, B. (n.d.). Children, race, and racism: How race awareness develops . Retrieved from http://www.teachingforchange.org/files/027-a.pdf on September 30