To say this will be a heated political season may be a real understatement. Children don’t seem to be proof against the rhetoric in campaign ads, the toxicity which can often arise on social media, or even to the emotionally charged discourse among friends or relations. How are our youngsters impacted, and what can we do to help them to remain mentally healthy?
We asked Jennifer Katzenstein, Ph.D., co-director of the Center for Behavioral Health and director of psychology at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, for some pieces of recommendation.
Children are hearing and seeing such lots during this election season. How are they suffering from this?
Many kids, especially older school-age students and youths are impacted by the strain and anxiety they see around them. Some kids are at a stage where they’re developing autonomy and emerging from concrete thinking. It can create some way of uncertainty for the long term and feelings of distress if they see their parents and other caregivers in distress.
The key’s to induce eliminate the emotion. it is important to talk to kids, regardless of age, about political issues, differing views, and also the way we are ready to all work together for a regular good. This is often an opportunity to ask them what they know, to concentrate on them, and to reply at a developmentally appropriate level.
Teens are responding and participating in politics in an exceedingly way not seen before. do you have advice for fogeys of teens?
It’s good to allow our adolescents an opportunity to specific themselves but remind them that what they share on social media often lives on for extended than the election, and it’s visiting not represent their views within the longer term.
Should a parent influence their children’s political views?
Although we’d wish to instill our values in kids and, potentially, this includes dogmas, it’s important to allow children the prospect to work out all sides of the issues and acknowledge all perspectives.
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