The Drama of the Anxious Child

The Drama of the Anxious Child In Time magazine, Lawrence J. Cohen writes an editorial titled, The Drama of the Anxious Child. In this article Cohen taps into childhood anxiety and what kind of effect parents have while they grow up. Cohen makes the claim that childhood anxiety is on the rise at every level, “from fears of monsters under the bed to phobias and panic attacks to severe anxiety patterns.” The claim of this editorial isn’t the first thing that Cohen writes, he starts with some statistics about child anxiety. He writes, “Nowadays, there are still 10-20% with that reactive temperament, but the number of children with a diagnosable anxiety disorder has skyrocketed, up to 25% according to the National Institutes of Mental Health.” By doing this, Cohen uses the rhetorical appeal of ethos, or credibly. He then goes into about four main reasons that back up his claim of childhood anxiety rising over the years. The first reason Cohen points out is the imbalance of what causes stress and how to cope with it. Anxiety is a simple formula of what causes stress, and then subtract all the abilities to cope, which then equals our anxiety level. This formula doesn’t just work for kids, but everyone. Cohen argues that kids these days are overscheduled because schools are more competitive and stressful. He also says that our society is based on a win-lose model, where only a few children will be able to succeed, causing even more stress on kids to stand out and overwork themselves. Being so overscheduled goes into reason number two Cohen gives to the cause of anxiety in children to rise. The second reason Cohen points out is, children don’t have enough time to be bored and have downtime. Cohen argues, “Children don’t get enough time outside, either experiencing nature or running around in their neighborhood. Children don’t spend nearly enough time doing ‘nothing,’ enjoying the downtime necessary to process all their new experiences.” Kids have this constant need to be doing something and to never be bored. Cohen believes that this constant need comes from parents and their own stress that their kid won’t be academically successful, always happy, creative, and socially/emotionally intelligent. This being Cohen’s third reason as to why childhood stress is rising. He says it’s the parents’ push to have their kinds to be all those things that causes kids to be stressed out and always looking for something to do. Not only does Cohen think of anxiety as a formula, but also an alarm system. “We need a little jolt of it (anxiety) so we will look both ways before crossing the street, but we also need an all-clear signal when the danger has passed,” says Cohen. He argues his last point with the fact that we are constantly wired to the world around us and, in-turn, the all-clear signal is ultimately drowned out. The media tells us instantly when a disaster has happened. Cohen didn’t go much further into this point. I feel like if he elaborated a little bit more about “alarm system.” Then this would have been a stronger reason.
In this editorial, Cohen ends with some ways parents can help with lessening childhood anxiety.
As parents, we need to focus on the opposite of worry, anxiety, and fear. In terms of the body, that means relaxation, physical activity, roughhousing, and outdoor time. In terms of overprotectiveness, that means letting children have adventures that are scary, fun, and safe. In terms of specific phobias, the opposite is a gentle nudge towards facing the feelings and overcoming the fears.
At this point he is using the rhetorical appeal of pathos. It’s easier said than done for parents to do these things. Parents have their own anxieties about letting their kids take on the world on their own. It’s a parent’s instinct to protect their kids for as long as possible.
I think that all of Cohen’s arguments were valid, but there is a factor that he didn’t take into account; how is childhood stress different in a family with just one kid and a family with multiple? Do parents focus more on the one child, putting all the stress on them to be academically successful, always happy, creative, and socially/emotionally intelligent? In a family with more than two or three kids, is there a child with less stress compared to the others? I think that when there is only one child in a family that parents tend to push them to be a “star child.” While, a family with multiple children may focus more on one or two kids while the others are more in the background. I think that if Cohen had addressed this in his editorial, it maybe have added to his argument.
I did agree with Cohen’s argument in the end that kids are more stressed these days. The fact that parents, whether intentional or not, demand their kids to be academically successful, always happy, creative, and socially/emotionally intelligent is something I see a lot in families. I see kids stressed to get all A’s because that’s what their parent expect. I see kids focusing on nothing but sports to get a scholarship because that’s the only way they’d be able to go to college. I can only hope that parents and kids see what kind of toll stress has on their family, bodies and mind and decide to do something about it.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0929dpeditorial,0,4678424.story