Parent’s Stress and Children’s Health

The idea of children being emotionally attached to parents and the connections between this and children’s social success has received more attention by researchers than any other aspect of the parent-child attachment issue. But, there is a very interesting line of research which has little recognition that most of us ought to know about. This is important because in the emotional climate of our day, more parents are going to feel the stress of economic problems and other factors which may make life more challenging for their children.

The interesting connection between parental stress and children’s health was first recognized in the study of resilient children (those less vulnerable to emotional and physical problems). Researchers found that children differ in the way they react to the attachment they have with their parents. Some are highly reactive and other children are less so. This article deals with the highly reactive child.

In this research children were connected to a multi channel polygraph so researchers could see how all children in a family reacted. This device measured blood pressure, heart rate, and electrical levels in the skin. Here is what they found. When parents in the family had a sharp verbal exchange or were feeling higher levels of stress, some children reacted more strongly than other children. These were called “highly reactive.” This happened even though these children were not in the same room as their parents or in direct communication with them. Other children in the same family did not react the same way. The highly reactive children were found to be ill more often with stomach difficulties, allergies, colds, and flu like symptoms. In life they missed school more often due to illness.

The findings from this research suggest a clear connection between parental stress and children’s health. If the child is vulnerable or reactive to emotional experience they are more likely to be negatively affected when parents have stressful experiences. What does this mean?

Since life has stress in it, parents are not free from feeling and reacting to it. So, it is wise for parents to recognize that one or more of their children may be affected while others may not. Further, those children who are affected by parental stress may need more conversations to help them understand they are not responsible for it nor will they be influenced by it. Parents can also help children recognize these times and give them a “mediating,” thought or activity process which limits the extent of their reaction. Lastly, parents can give greater emphasis to the importance of positive, hopeful, pleasant, and warm statements and try and bring these into the family environment more often.

It would probably be a good thing if we all better understood what we react to and what we do not. It might help all of us to find ways to understand how our children are influenced by our emotional reactions. Most of us could benefit from making our homes and families a little more positive. Try it out.