Week 4 Stressers and How They Affect Children

When thinking of stressors, the first one that jumped out at me was chaos. I see chaos every day in a number of forms and for a number of reasons. I know several single moms who have four children. The children experience chaos every day. For example, all the moms have different people who are in and out of their lives while trying to have enough money to pay rent with a minimum wage job. All the moms are receiving WICK, food stamps, government housing and assistance with daycare. In order to continue to receive benefits the mothers must work at least 30 hours a week. With a 30 hour week job, the mothers are making too much to continue to receive benefits. This causes chaos because the mother is stressed; therefore, the children are stressed. Several of the children are exhibiting behavior issues because the children are being watched by a number of people, worry about money and food and are very insecure.

One of the stressers I have not experienced or seen in children are the ones who are changed because of war and being children soldiers. “Today, among the 87 war-torn countries in which data have been gathered, 300,000-500,000 children are involved with fighting forces as child soldiers (Harvard Public Health Review, n.d., p 1).” According to the assistant professor of child health and human rights, Department of Global Health and Population, Theresa Betancourt, “We need to devise lasting systems of care, instead of leaving behind a dust cloud that disappears when the humanitarian actor leave (p 4).”

In Betancourt’s studies, she has found that child soldiers were taken at a young age and taught to be killers. The child soldiers were mistreated and had no choice but to become a soldier. The girls that are with the soldiers, not voluntarily, were raped and had unwanted pregnancies. When the wars end, the children are left adrift with no one telling them what to do and returning to villages where they are seen as killers and unclean.  (Harvard Public Health Review, n.d.)

Betancourt and her team have started a pilot model known as the Youth Readiness Intervention. This program is monumental in helping children assimilate into their communities after being boy soldiers. According to Betancourt, she is providing a service for the country. “In the aftermath of chaotic civil wars, investments in psychosocial and mental health problems are typically phased out as the problem shifts to a postconflict and then a reconstruction phase (Harvard Public Health Review, p. 8).”

Harvard Public Health Review. (2011). Helping Former Child Soldiers Become Whole Again: Life After Death. Retrieved from http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/files/2013/01/review_fall_2011_child_soldiers.pdf