The importance of children’s mental health
The pressures that children face are often underestimated. Comments like “You’re just a kid. You don’t need to be so stressed about everything,” or “Just wait till you’re an adult” trivialise the experiences and emotions of children, diminishing the gravity of their personal issues and the attention paid to their mental health. However, children in their most vulnerable years (ages 3 to 18 years) can be most negatively affected by adverse childhood experiences. When a child encounters a difficult period in his or her life that is not resolved or simply unaddressed, negative emotions and distressed feelings can accumulate as the child is developing, making them much more susceptible to mental health problems in adulthood.
Children’s mental well-being is often neglected as we focus on their physical health more, leading to a lack of education and awareness that worsens the cycle. According to IMH (Institute of Mental Health), every year from 2012 to 2017, around 2,400 new cases of children in Singapore were diagnosed with anxiety or depression. There is an endless list of factors that can negatively impact children’s mental health and reasons why the numbers are so high, but academic pressures, social media, and poverty are the most common reasons for why anxiety, depression, and other psychological disorders are rising worldwide.
Academic pressures, such as the constant need to achieve the best grades and live up to their own or parents’ high expectations, can lead children to overwork themselves or beat themselves up over a bad grade. In the long run, the stress is likely to lead to burnout or worse – lowered self-esteem, anxiety, and depression. In addition, social media often displaying unrealistic ‘feeds’ can cause children to compare themselves to others who have apparently ‘perfect’ lives or looks, leading to future psychological disorders such as body image issues and depression when they subconsciously begin setting equally unrealistic standards for themselves. Lastly, children living in poverty are more likely to grow up in inappropriate environments, to experience adverse childhood events, childhood trauma, and are 3 times more likely to suffer from psychiatric conditions.
Why we should start paying attention to our children’s mental health
1) Children are vulnerable
A person’s childhood is one of the most vulnerable times of one’s life. During this time, children are highly dependent on their parents or guardians to provide necessities and socio-emotional support. That is why children are especially impressionable and thus vulnerable to psychological problems. Children may react disproportionately to objectively trivial issues, such as poor exam results finding them more important or difficult because they lack the experience and real-world knowledge possessed by most grown-ups. Over time, the unresolved or unspoken negative emotions pile up, and children are at risk of having lowered self-esteem and developing psychological disorders.
2) Children may not know how to approach us
It can be difficult for children to talk about their feelings for several reasons. The first is that children may feel so overwhelmed by work and goals that they fail to reflect on how they really feel. Secondly, because of a lack of education surrounding mental health in school systems worldwide, children may not know who to talk to about the problems they face, and will likely struggle to articulate or even identify their emotions in the first place. Finally, children may feel intimidated to share their issues because of how others may react to sensitive topics that are generally unspoken of, especially in an Asian context.
3) Lack of support
Inadequate education surrounding child poverty and its effects on mental health has led it to be one of the most underrated reasons for the rise of psychiatric conditions in these children. Children living in poverty often lack socio-emotional support from family and friends, and have little access to grants and services that provide not only necessities, but services that care for the mental well-being of the children. The insufficient support systems that the children have mean that they do not have enough resources to support or resolve any emotional distress they may be experiencing, making them especially susceptible to emotional traumas. In the long term, living with nutrient deficiencies and unsolved emotional distress or trauma could lead to future psychological disorders.
Checking in, listening, and talking
It is important for parents, guardians and educators to learn about mental health and help children foster the habit of talking about their feelings from a young age. It is vital that adults and teachers step up and regularly check up on children’s mental well-being. Frequently asking questions such as “How has your week been?” or “Did anything happen in school this week?”, and listening to our children will allow them to feel welcomed to speak about how they feel, and that it is okay to feel the way they feel! This way, we can strengthen both public or private support systems to take preventative measures and help children overcome any emotional distress they may be feeling.