Anxiety disorder is a psychological illness that is caused by mental trauma, shock and other. This kind of disorder often causes several problems for an individual, especially in case of children. The mental state of children is sensitive and it can be subjected to any kind of mishaps and may take an unwanted turn.
Several cases have been published in newspapers that express the gradually increasing incidents of children committing crime due to anxiety disorder and this assessment seeks to probe into the matter and find a solution after making a case study. Anxiety is considered as excessively dangerous when it reaches beyond the proportion to the challenges and stress (Ma et al. 2021).
The excessive anxiety often results in distress and mental imbalance among children (Ðurdevic et al. 2022).Anxiety is viewed as a normal occurrence in childhood (Kapoor et al. 2020). Children experience shyness, fear, nervousness and they avoid activities and places that put threats to them (Fox et al. 2021).
Common anxiety disorder among children mostly occurs in the form of social phobia, specific phobia, avoidance of certain people and stuff (Marr et al. 2022).
Psychoanalytic theory of anxiety disorder originated with Freud and these theories are influential for applied and clinical settings. Freud formulated two theories on anxiety in which he reflected anxiety as a general phenomenon for humans and it is a way for expressing neuroses. Everyday anxiety is concerned with perceivable and real objects; it is referred to as fear. Neurotic anxiety deals with anxiety for any abstract or imaginary stuff and it can be seen as free floating, panic attack and phobia. Freud marked anxiety as a form of transformed libido that comes through mental repression.
- Anxiety is considered as excessively dangerous when it reaches beyond the proportion to the challenges and stress (Ma et al. 2021).
- The excessive anxiety often results in distress and mental imbalance among children (Ðurdevic et al. 2022).
- Anxiety is viewed as a normal occurrence in childhood (Kapoor et al. 2020).
- Children experience shyness, fear, nervousness and they avoid activities and places that put threats to them (Fox et al. 2021).
- Common anxiety disorder among children mostly occurs in the form of social phobia, specific phobia, avoidance of certain people and stuff (Marr et al. 2022).
- Unusual intimacy or lack of intimacy with parents and other relatives are the common symptoms of anxiety disorder (Tiirikainen et al. 2019).
- Studying the role of variables is essential to point out the impact of anxiety disorder on the academic performance of the children (van Der Kolk et al. 2019).
- An individual thwarted from conducting any activities grows anxiety or dissatisfaction that turns to anxiety disorder (Kakamad, 2021)
- Obsessive compulsive disorder and panic related disorder also are not so common in children (Cho et al. 2019).
- The partiality in treating offspring by the parents often leads to anxiety disorder for any of the siblings who think he or she is less privileged than others (Xiao et al. 2020).
- Anxiety often emerges from developing an egoistic character and self-awareness that allows an individual to generate a self-centered sense (Balogh et al. 2021)
- Anxiety is a common phenomenon and it involves affective, behavioral and cognitive responses to the risk and danger
- The present assessment has found that anxiety symptoms are more evident among the children of Australia than of Europe
- Several theories related to anxiety disorder among children have been formulated.
The present article has found that anxiety symptoms are more evident among the children of Australia than of Europe. The anxiety disorder among girls is more common than the boys and it is noted in a ratio 2:1. Social milieu often becomes the reason for anxiety disorder as found by several studies.
Neurotic anxiety deals with anxiety for any abstract or imaginary stuff and it can be seen as free floating, panic attack and phobia. Freud marked anxiety as a form of transformed libido that comes through mental repression.
Neurotic anxiety deals with anxiety for any abstract or imaginary stuff and it can be seen as free floating, panic attack and phobia. Freud marked anxiety as a form of transformed libido that comes through mental repression.
Children are the future of a generation as well as the country, so the social and domestic hierarchy must be careful while dealing with them. Small misconduct to a child can result in a worse way and it is beyond countering. The government must enforce laws and restrictions to safeguard the future of the nation from going astray.
Anxiety Disorder among Children
Anxiety disorder is a psychological illness that is caused by mental trauma, shock and other. This kind of disorder often causes several problems for an individual, especially in case of children. The mental state of children is sensitive and it can be subjected to any kind of mishaps and may take an unwanted turn. The children's' minds are vulnerable to numerous instability and disorder and anxiety disorder is the prevalent case for adolescents and children. Several cases have been published in newspapers that express the gradually increasing incidents of children committing crime due to anxiety disorder and this assessment seeks to probe into the matter and find a solution after making a case study.
Among the normal emotions of an individual, anxiety is a common phenomenon and it involves affective, behavioral and cognitive responses to the risk and danger. Anxiety is considered as excessively dangerous when it reaches beyond the proportion to the challenges and stress (Ma et al. 2021). The excessive anxiety often results in distress and mental imbalance among children (Ðurdevic et al. 2022). Anxiety is viewed as a normal occurrence in childhood (Kapoor et al. 2020). Children experience shyness, fear, nervousness and they avoid activities and places that put threats to them (Fox et al. 2021). Anxiety disorder prevalently ranges from 4% to 20% among the children. Common anxiety disorder among children mostly occurs in the form of social phobia, specific phobia, avoidance of certain people and stuff (Marr et al. 2022). Among anxiety disorders, the prevalent disorders are separation anxiety disorder and generalized anxiety disorder, while post-traumatic stress disorder and agoraphobia are less evident among children. Obsessive compulsive disorder and panic related disorder also are not so common in children (Cho et al. 2019).
The present assessment has found that anxiety symptoms are more evident among the children of Australia than of Europe. The anxiety disorder among girls is more common than the boys and it is noted in a ratio 2:1. Social milieu often becomes the reason for anxiety disorder as found by several studies. Hardships in studies, excessive concern about body and looks, having no or few friends, unusual intimacy or lack of intimacy with parents and other relatives are the common symptoms of anxiety disorder (Tiirikainen et al. 2019). The partiality in treating offspring by the parents often leads to anxiety disorder for any of the siblings who think he or she is less privileged than others (Xiao et al. 2020). Studying the role of variables such as exams and studies is essential to point out the impact of anxiety disorder on the academic and performance of the children (van Der Kolk et al. 2019). School going children often suffer from anxiety disorder as they cannot cope with the massive pressure of studies.
Several theories related to anxiety disorder among children have been formulated. Mentioning a couple of such theories will benefit the holistic approach of this assessment. Here, few theories have been discussed to make the assessment perceivable for future studies-
a) Psychoanalytic theory- Psychoanalytic theory of anxiety disorder originated with Freud and these theories are influential for applied and clinical settings. Freud formulated two theories on anxiety in which he reflected anxiety as a general phenomenon for humans and it is a way for expressing neuroses. Everyday anxiety is concerned with perceivable and real objects; it is referred to as fear. Neurotic anxiety deals with anxiety for any abstract or imaginary stuff and it can be seen as free floating, panic attack and phobia. Freud marked anxiety as a form of transformed libido that comes through mental repression. An individual when is refraining and thwarted from conducting any activities and or prevented from following any general instincts, he grows anxiety or dissatisfaction that turns to anxiety disorder (Kakamad, 2021). Freud reversed the connection between repression and anxiety in his second formulation and showed repression as an incident that occurs due to anxious experience.
b) Existential or phenomenological theory- This theory of anxiety disorder originated by Kierkegaard in 1844. Anxiety in this theory is understood as the natural occurring of an individual. Interestingly Kierkegaard made a difference between anxiety and fear which are somewhat similar. Fear comes from any particular thing or being and anxiety generates from necessary conditions or individual choices, not necessarily from any particular object. Anxiety often emerges from developing an egoistic character and self-awareness that allows an individual to generate a self-centered sense (Balogh et al. 2021) Anxiety comes with every choice made by an individual and it is unavoidable.
CASE-BASED ANALYSIS
Here a case study is evaluated to throw insight into the deep of anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorder among children is often neglected and repressed to skip any unwanted discussion or criticism. Neglecting it makes the matter more serious and it inflicts its roots into the deepest corner of a child's mind. The parents often beat their child and rebuke when the son and daughter show any kind of defiance and it makes the child feel insecure and unwanted. Whacking children is no solution for treating anxiety disorder; rather it makes the condition worse. Smacking a child makes the risk of developing anxiety disorder severe and it is evident in this case study. Surveys elaborate that most of the Australian children aged 15 to 23 have been ill treated by their parents, teacher and other relatives or subjected to physical punishment. Treating a child in hard ways never has been a solution to cure mental sickness.
Discussion about the use of beating and corporal punishment to inflict the sense of discipline among children results in a negative way. Australian Catholic University has proved that the children subjected to thumping and beating, grow the tendencies of depression and anxiety disorder. Their sensitive mindset is severely affected by the corporal punishment and they cannot express it due to their fear that more punishment will proceed if they open it up to anyone. This kind of repression makes them violent and they start to feel vengeful to the ongoing condition and seek to defy it. Antisocial propensity emerges in them and they are pushed towards committing unacceptable deeds that jeopardize their future as well as present. Corporal punishment comes not only as beating, but it includes pinching, scratching, ear pulling. Leaf researcher of 7NEWS.com, Daryl Higgins, opines that physical punishment is practiced to create pain in a child but not an injury as a method of correctional behavioral control (Taylor, 2022).
The "Australian Child Maltreatment Study" exposes that 8000 Australians have been subjected to corporal punishment in their childhood as a method of teaching them to act according to the social or cultural tradition. The complete result of "National Health and Medical Research Council" will reveal more information and statistics on this issue. A new study has found that 61% of the young Australian citizen faces the consequences of corporal punishment and they are subjected to lifelong anxiety disorder and depression (Taylor, 2022). The study proves the varying impact of physical punishment on the boys and girls taking 3500 children aged 16 to 25 as sample size (Taylor, 2022). The girls are 1.8 times more likely to have psychological disorders and 2.1 times more vulnerable to generalized anxiety (Taylor, 2022). The boys are 1.7 times more likely than girls to develop depression and 1.6 times to develop anxiety. According to Higgins it proves that link between lifelong mental sickness and corporal punishment (Taylor, 2022).
Higgins expresses his opinion as "If you want to reduce population level anxiety for women and men, don't hit them as children." This study also tested the propensity of few kinds of maltreatment of child- sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, exposure to domestic violence and negligence by parents. 30% of the youth participants have experienced non suicidal health injuries associated to emotional, sexual and physical abuse in childhood. Girls and boys have faced the trauma due to sexual abuse 5.9 times and 3.7 times respectively to report self-harm (Taylor, 2022). The exposure to domestic violence for girls and boys in childhood are 2.4 and 1.9 times likely respectively to grow depression and 2.2 times and 2.4 times more likely to face anxiety. According to the research 40% of 65 year olds are in support of beating children and other ways of physical punishment to teach the young fellows about discipline (Taylor, 2022).
The attitude of the people is changing and it is high time everyone supports nonviolence towards the children. The judicial structure of Australia does not provide any safeguard for children from assaults like other Australian citizens and it is the time to implement some laws to benefit the interest of the children. Though the bad impact of child beating is not new but the prevalence of corporal punishment is perceived for the first time. The enhanced risk of growing depression and anxiety disorder among the child due to beating is also proved for the first time by the study. Many senior Australian citizens' expresses that though they faced corporal punishment at young age but they have made peace with it and now it is not a big deal for them. Higgins says that perceived or not, negative influence of physical abuse can make a person mentally paralyzed.
Higgins gives an example that any habitual smoker does not necessarily suffer from lung cancer and they can claim that there is no relation between lung cancer and smoking. This notion is just not approved by science and it is time to take proper approaches to make children safe from anxiety disorder. Corporal punishment is legal in all the states and regions of Australia except when it is "unreasonable" and monitored by a parent or caretaker or any guardian. The state of New South Wales has a law stating a clear definition of reasonable child beating.
What are recommendations?
Treating the young fellows must involve strategies such as instructing them clearly, setting consistent and clear expectations or responsibilities, warning and rewarding them as opined by experts and psychologists. A sensitive mind is more approachable to soft words and warm behavior rather than vulgar treatment. Parents must understand when to use a carrot and when the stick makes the condition worse. Each child is different and unique and all of them must be treated according to their characteristic and personal traits. Parents are the primal friend, philosopher and guide of a child so any maltreatment from parents can permanently make a child sick mentally and depressed. The goal of the parents must be to help their offspring to develop the skills to behave well, not to teach them discipline in a hard way. Rewards work in a positive way for the children as it brings happiness and encourages them to set their behavioral chart more effectively.
Countering the tantrum of their child, the parents often feel disturbed in public and they want to suppress it by rebuking and even slapping their baby hard. This path is the worst as it makes the child afraid of their parents and it starts to feel that they are the bad people. The parents feel ashamed in front of other people but there is nothing to be ashamed of. Children act like children as they still have not grown any sense or experience and they must be treated as children. Their wrongdoings must be corrected, but not by beating them or yelling at them. They can be warned for their misdeeds and encouraged to make themselves better. The parents must be aware of the huge pressure that is faced by their child in the form of study.
The present assessment is based on the case study and statistics that is found in a particular newspaper. The subject is based on a serious social issue and it needs to be addressed by the experts and researchers to find solutions. Children are the future of a generation as well as the country, so the social and domestic hierarchy must be careful while dealing with them. Small misconduct to a child can result in a worse way and it is beyond countering. The government must enforce laws and restrictions to safeguard the future of the nation from going astray.