Impact of Environment and Social Media on Child Development
School
California State University, Fullerton**We aren't endorsed by this school
Course
PSYC 365
Subject
Psychology
Date
Dec 10, 2024
Pages
4
Uploaded by CorporalFreedomJay41
Grace Cardinale Child psychology is the focus on change and stability that focuses on the physical, cognitive, psychosocial and social development throughout a child’s life. Anything that happens in a child’s life can affect them both positively and negatively. Living in a violent neighborhood can affect a child’s mental health, brain development and their amygdala. Hyde and his colleges pointed out, “One way might be through the amygdala, the hub of the brain’s stress response system that’s involved in socioemotional functioning, threat processing and fear learning” (Hyde, 2024). In my opinion, children who grew up in a violent neighborhood are more likely to become more violent as they get older due to the environment they grew up in. “Overall, the researchers found that participants who lived in more disadvantaged neighborhoods reported more exposure to community violence (Hyde, 2024). Constantly being exposed to violence whether it be domestic violence or simply seeing their neighbor’s violence day by day. As the child gets older, they might experience lack of independence because of the fear and trauma they suffer from, resulting in much dependency on a family member. Growing up in a divorce or single parent household can affect a child mentally and emotionally. The absence of having a stable family or a parent can cause a child to feel lost or lonely, which can lead to depression. By not having the stability a child’s needs or wants they can end up not doing well in school, struggling to make friends, and having zero motivation to do anything at all. Not all children think of divorce as a negative thing. In some cases, the changecan give them a sense of relief. This change can also help them feel more open to sharing their feelings with their family and find ways around the new living situations.
As a child of divorce myself, I experienced the different challenges growing up. At first itwas a big adjustment going from one family to two. Not being able to celebrate holidays with both my parents together did affect me mentally and emotionally, but as I got older, I got used to the new normal and realized things could be way worse. Children growing up in poverty have a higher risk of experiencing a weak development outcome. By suffering from poverty, it can be hard for children to get the care they need which can lead to medical issues as they get older. If a child is raised in a pour family from a young age, they might not realize that it’s not the best way to live so as they grow up, they will just continue to live in poverty and not try to help their families find a solution. Poverty can also affect a child’s stress levels, education abilities, and social abilities significantly. Not being able to afford the best education as they grow up, they will lack finding the best job possible for them which may lead to not being able to afford a house or car causing them to become homeless. Another way poverty can affect a child is socially. A child might be scared to open up and making friends because they might fear that they will get made fun of and bullied. One of the most important parts of life socially, is by making friends and by not having friends it can affect a child’s development and self-esteem as they get older. Social media plays a huge role in a child’s mental health. It can help children make new friends and explore but it can also make them feel bad about themselves. Scrolling thorough social media can cause low self-esteem while comparing themselves to the people they see online. “Social media can expose users to hundreds or even thousands of images and photos every day, including those of celebrities and fashion or fitness models, which we know leads to an internalization of beauty ideals that are unattainable for almost everyone, resulting in greater dissatisfaction with body weight and shape” (Goldfield, 2023). When posting online everyone
can view, like, and comment on a post. Scrolling through the comments of your own post can create a disapproval for yourself. Studies show that by not using social media everyday children may find themselves gaining back their self-esteem. “Our brief, four-week intervention using screentime trackers showed that reducing social media use yielded significant improvements in appearance and weight esteem in distressed youth with heavy social media use” (Goldfield, 2023). In conclusion, there are many things that can affect a child’s mental health and emotional development. From growing up in violent neighborhoods and living in poverty to struggling withhaving divorced parents. This can all affect a child’s mental health both negatively and positively. https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2023/02/social-media-body-imagehttps://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2024/02/violent-neighborhoods-brain-developmenthttps://www.apa.org/monitor/sep03/parents
https://www.apa.org/pi/ses/resources/webinars/overcoming-poverty-presentation.pdf