5 common sources of childhood anxiety that can affect little ones

These are several aspects of everyday life that have the capacity to generate anxiety in children.

Childhood is often described as the stage of play and fun, but this does not have to be so.

In the same way that excessive anxiety is among the most frequent psychological problems among adults, statistically it also affects the little ones of the house, and if we add to this that they have fewer resources to manage these experiences without relying on anyone else, it becomes evident the need to understand their world to help them and prevent this kind of problems.

For this reason, in this article we will a review of the most common sources of child anxiety in children..

Frequent sources of child anxiety in children

These are the day-to-day experiences that can easily lead to childhood anxiety.

1. Conflicts in the family environment

The family is the social environment in which children should feel safe, but this is not always the case. Some children learn to be constantly alert when they are surrounded by arguments, fights and punishments, etc.

It should not be forgotten that mental health is not individual, but contextual, and that our emotional well-being, both in childhood and in our adulthood, is linked to what is going on around us... although with the difference that children have less room for maneuver to cope on their own with stressful situations that occur at home, as they have less freedom.

2. Irrational fears

In many aspects, children and adolescents think very differently from adults; it is not that quantitatively they lack information or knowledge, but that their minds work in a qualitatively different way. This is the only way to understand, for example, that up to a certain age it is normal for them to have imaginary friends or that their understanding of the world is clearly superstitious in many aspects. To fill in their knowledge gaps, they use what is called magical thinkingwhich consists of attributing intentions, emotions, motivations and thoughts to inanimate elements: objects, landscapes, plants, stars, etc.

In this way, they manage to make sense of what surrounds them by grouping a series of complex elements (for example, what can be seen in the sky) into imaginary entities that group many of these elements together to form units (for example, a wizard that when transformed becomes the set of clouds we can see up there).

The negative aspect of this is that the little ones are vulnerable to a series of irrational fears that in some cases can that in some cases can generate anxiety and even sleeping problems. As parents, educators and psychological wellness professionals, it is important to help them cope with these fears without getting them used to constantly running away from these elements (darkness, objects that generate fear, etc.).

3. An overload of tasks

Something that is unfortunately overlooked by many parents is that children need to have free time. children need to have some free time and play.with no pretensions other than having fun and experimenting. Not only is it not a waste of time, but it is their way of learning firsthand how the world works and personal relationships (in the case of the game with the group of friends).

That's why, it is a serious mistake to fill our children's timetable with one extracurricular activity after another, something we often fall into.It is therefore a serious mistake to fill our children's timetable with one extracurricular activity after another, something that is sometimes done in an attempt to get them to learn as much as possible from their first years of life. Not only is it counterproductive as a long-term learning project (it is difficult to enjoy these activities in such a situation, and therefore self-motivation is low), but it can also lead to serious stress and anxiety problems.

4. Misuse of social networks

Social networks are one more area in which young people interact with each other and develop their own identity.especially in adolescence, the stage in which identification with a reference group (made up of young people of a similar age) is most important. But as this virtual environment is a world of extremes, contents showing idealized aesthetics and lifestyles stand out above all.

This leads many minors to feel bad about their lives and to try to improve their self-esteem by "competing" for the attention and validation of others on these social networks, either by sharing their own content or by constantly checking what others are uploading so as not to miss anything and to be up to date. This need to be constantly thinking about the operating logics of social networks, whose contents are updated second by second, can generate anxiety: seeing that the last post we uploaded has not received too many interactions, arguing with someone in a comments section, etc.

5. The habit of playing video games all the time

Many video games have game mechanics with a great capacity to "hook" the player and make it difficult to detach from the screen.. Children and adolescents are especially vulnerable to this phenomenon, because on the one hand, in the first years of life it is more complicated to regulate impulses by putting long-term objectives first, and on the other hand, most of these games are visually designed to attract the younger population.

This causes, for example, that many children feel discomfort and anxiety when they cannot be playing, or experience frustration or anger when they have to interrupt a game to do other school or family tasks, etc. Therefore, although video games are not bad in themselves, it is important to make sure that the guidelines for their use are correct.