SECTION 3

COMMON SOURCES OF STRESS IN THE FOUNDATION PHASE

THE STRESS OF GROWING UP
Meeting personal goals.
These can occur early in life and result in stress if adults set goals or tasks that are too difficult and children
strive unsuccessfully to reach them. Sometimes children set unrealistically high goals as they compete with
friends or peers.
Self-Esteem.
These are related to fulfillment of self and ego needs that are readily affected by their surroundings, by
parents and friends, and by successes and failures. Self image develops early in childhood from a variety of
family values, attitudes, and personal experiences. Those that are reinforced, whether positive or negative,
affect how children view themselves and the extent to which they respond to stressors.
Changing values
Some children do not understand the value system adults impose on them. They may get the message that
adults do not value the things children believe are important or that their values are unimportant. This can
lead to confusion and strife.
Social Standards
Expectations and standards change with different levels of development and with changes in the peer group
and school setting. Children become confused trying to understand social standards that are acceptable at
one time and not at another.
Ability and Personal Competence.
Lack of confidence in their ability can play havoc with their morale, undermine parental expectations, and
create problems in school.
Competition with Others.
Children want to be liked, and therefore accepted, by their peers. At the same time, they want to be special.
Deviations can induce stress.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ADULTS AND CHILDREN
Even though the types of stressors that affect children often stem from the same stressors adults have, the
major difference is that children do not have the ability to control the situations that cause them stress, as
adults often do. Children stressors frequently are created by occurrences in the parents life.
HOME AND FAMILY STRESS

Marital discord
Low social status
Overcrowding or large family size
Parental criminality
Parental psychiatric disorder
Admission into the care of local authorities

Parents well-being also plays an important role in a childs adjustment to stress. Parents who are ill, have
emotional problems, or experience marital tension, tend to be less responsive, less nurturing, less
affectionate, and more punitive with their children. The introduction of new parental figures in the home is
particularly stressful for school-aged children. Other childhood stressors include accidents, injuries, or
hospitalizations of a family member, family relocation, separation from parents, and addition of a sibling.
Parents, attempting to cope with everyday demands of dual-working families, financial obligations, and more
responsibilities, may place undue burdens on their children. Sometimes children are left to carry the
overload. These factors and the stress that emerges from them, increase a childs risk for physical and
mental illness. The childs response to stress is related to the extent of threat in the life event. Even
everyday life stressors, such as daily chores and responsibilities, breaking toys, losing a game, getting to
school on time, and poor nutrition, can be stressful. These may result in a variety of behavioral, learning,
and emotional problems during the school day.
COPING WITH STRESS IN SCHOOL
A common myth about school is that all children are eager to go. School, however, can be the source of a
wide variety of positive and negative stressors and even pain. The fear of school can be real or imagined.
In many cases, the teacher, the school itself, the administration, or the organization creates stressors for
children. The demands of separation, performance, cooperation and competition, socialization, deadlines,
homework, tests as proof of learning, and athletics contribute to a stressful environment.
School Adjustment
The physical environment of the school, the classroom, or even the cafeteria can contribute to a childs
stress. Children should perceive the school as a safe place. This translates to the absence of violence,
display if students work on walls and bulletin boards, organization and order, and teachers effectively
administering the curriculum. If teachers can make the class environment a happy place for students, this
will reduce stress and facilitate learning.
The learning process
Teachers have to be concerned not only with studying and learning but also with socializing, security,
individual attention, and evidence of self-worth. The teacher can reduce stress in this area by giving
positive feedback, a good way to help children relax and feel good about themselves.
Competition
Having children work together in groups toward an explicit goal, can reduce the sense of competition and
stress.
Subject Stress
Some subjects cause more stress and anxiety than others. This anxiety is related to performance demands
and the students perceptions of his or her own ability to meet them. Performance declines as stress
increases. Reducing stressors can help raise performance.
Test Anxiety
Verbal tests produce greater anxiety than written tests. Anxiety is learned from prior conditioning, and its
impact is rarely considered when interpreting test results, which are supposed to measure acquired
knowledge rather than the ability to perform under stress. The teacher can help reduce test anxiety by
repeatedly going over material, giving practice tests, and reducing the emphasis, where possible, on tests in
the learning process.

 Parent involvement
The issuance of report cards is associated with stress. The teacher can alleviate some of this stress by
keeping parents informed and involved through parent-teacher conferences and open school nights. This
gives parents opportunities to help their children with stressful experiences in school. By the time the report
card is sent home, parents and children have been discussing progress, which makes this time less
stressful.
TEACHING CHILDREN HOW TO COPE WITH STRESS
Laughter and Fun
Humor can reduce stress, ease pain, foster a return to health, and improve a persons outlook on life in
general. Many subsequent research studies have confirmed the stress-reducing benefits of laughter.
Comic books, cartoons, silly toys and games, and funny movies are among effective stress reducers for
children. The laughter that emanates from humor can contribute to stress reduction. Encouraging
opportunities for laughter during the school day and at home by reading funny stories and telling humorous
anecdotes from personal experiences, can reduce stress in children.
Altering Perceptions
Probably the most pervasive cause of stress is the way a person thinks about the world and perceives
situations. Changing the way adults view the world around them, can be difficult. The task may be easier
with children, because they commonly base their perceptions on limited experience, a brief history, and
immediate needs. Children are easily distracted by new experiences, and negative perceptions can be
replaced by more positive ones. Having children share in curriculum development, deciding what to include
and what to leave out, openly discussing the relevant issues, and having them come to collective decisions,
is a means of broadening their perceptions about the world around them and increasing their feelings of
control.
Revising Attitudes
How children feel about themselves and how they interact with others have a great influence over their
stress reactions. Ways of decreasing stress include building self-image, developing assertive responses
that are confident, and expressing needs.

Nutrition

A childs nutritional state can be a stressor itself or can be the result of other emotional stressors. Some
food chemicals produce stress by stimulating the autonomic system. Some vitamins received from foods
we eat are thought to protect against stress. The foods available during snack time or at lunch in schools
can be monitored so they do not contribute to stress.
Relaxation
Achieving relaxation requires not only preventing stressors from entering the body, but also establishing
peace of mind. Many people have outlets, things they like to do, not for achieving goals or
accomplishments but, instead, for personal satisfaction. This allows them to focus their mental energies on
the activity and away from the pressure of everyday life. The diversity can be a physical activity, an artistic
or musical interlude or a good book, anything that lowers the level of stress and produces the relaxation
response. The main reason for participating in the activity is relaxation.