According to Johns Hopkins University, there are eight social factors that affect kids’ mental health. Thanks to a years-long study, they discovered that kids who were exposed to these adverse situations had a higher risk of behavioral, emotional, and cognitive problems.
But, they also concluded that being supported by the family and learning how to be resilient may counteract these negative effects.
The study placed the adversity into two groups, i.e., relational and social. They also determined that relational risks decrease children’s mental health more than social risks did.
Kids who were exposed to substance abuse in their homes showed more issues emotionally, mentally, and behaviorally than the ones facing problems like economic disparity.
The 8 Major Social Factors that Damage the Mental Health of Kids According to Psychology
This analysis is based on survey responses from 2016 to 2019. It included 132,000 kids from ages three to 17.
It focused on the complex relationship between kids’ mental health and the social and relational health risks.
The findings are published in the 2022 Issue of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America.
The study found that 21.8 percent of kids in the US who were surveyed had one or more mental, emotional, or behavioral issues. The frequency of mental health issues among kids in the US was in the range of 15 and 60 percent.
With the exposure to social and relational risks increasing, the kids’ symptoms of poor mental health worsened.
The eight social factors which the scientists focused on were economic hardship, food insecurity, unsafe neighborhood, racial discrimination, substance or domestic abuse, insufficient caregiver mental health, low resilience in caregivers, and frequent child-parent conflicts.
What Are the Social Factors that Better Childhood Mental Health?
Despite the negative social factors that affect kids’ mental health negatively, there are also ways to better their mental well-being.
The team found that teaching children how to build resilience and engagement at school helps lower the negative impact of adverse social factors. Self-regulation in challenging times improves self-confidence and creates stronger kids.
According to the team, a kid was engaged 77 percent less in school when they didn’t have the proper self-regulation skills.
However, a strong bond with their parents helped children with mental health issues self-regulate their emotions, six times more often.
This is why the American Academy of Pediatrics encourages people working in the mental health sector as well as the schools to promote such skills. By teaching positivity and resilience to kids and families from early on, the whole society will benefit.
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