How Violence Affects Children
Violence does more damage to a community than what people realize. Children being exposed to violence at a young age can affect them in their journey of life physically and emotionally. Any type of violence can result in an aftermath that will last a lifetime. Places where violence is something that happens very often have a higher effect on the children that live there. When someone is exposed to something all the time it becomes a norm to them. The children who are exposed to violence regularly become accustomed to going through traumatic experiences. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an result for some kids that see violence regularly. Dealing with violence is a lot for anyone but children specifically need a support team that will give them the help they need to move forward with their lives.
“Dr. Spivack found that children who live in inner cities experience higher rates of PTSD than do combat veterans, due in large part to the fact that the majority of kids living in inner-city neighborhoods are routinely exposed to violence.” Children who live in the city should not have higher rates than people who fought in actually wars. Being a child you should not be exposed to violence regularly. A routine of violence will start to make children believe that violence is ok. Also it will make them believe that violence is an solution to problems which it is not. Children repeat behaviors that they see. So all the unhealthy behaviors that they see in their environments will eventually be apart of their behaviors. It is very true that people are a product of their environment. If a child's environment is constantly filled with violence then what do you expect a child contribute to their community. Feeding children garbage such as violence in their most impressionable years will end up hurting society because children are what you shape them to be. So if society feeds the children good things like healthy problem solving skills and love then the future will be totally different.
As a child finding the most healthiest way to express how you feel isn't the easiest. Not only because you don't know but because you are still a child and learning how to deal with so many other things in your life like growing up in general. You are still figuring things out and finding out who you are. But for most children you also have to figure out how to survive in places that meaningless violence happens on a regular. This is where mentors and good examples for kids come in. helping kids with traumatic experiences would make lots of kids feel better. “Kids know what happened. Keeping it a ‘secret’ or making up a story about it may only add confusion and mistrust. Kids may fear talking about it because it is a “secret or forbidden topic.” To create healthy dialogues, we can invite children to ask adults any questions they might have about what happened or about themselves and their loved ones ( Azmaria Maker,Ph.D).” When violence happens people think letting it go unspoken is better than talking about it will be better because then the children won't cry. But in reality talking about traumatic experiences will relieve children and won't leave any unanswered questions or thoughts about things that happen in society. Having an open dialogue about the things that happen will let kids know that the way they feel towards situation are okay and help them eventually move on and be the best version of themselves that they can be.
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