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Growing up too fast: Missing out on the Best Years
Children are growing up too fast and missing out on the best years of their lives. Accessibility to everything, good and bad, that is happening in the world is just a click away and young children see images that encourage them to look older and grow up faster. It has even become difficult finding appropriate clothing for children under the age of fifteen. Instead of age-appropriate apparel, many retailers advertise clothing with styles that have low cuts, halter-tops, open-backs or plunging necklines. This paper will examine how the media pressures young children to look and act older. Although this happens across the country, it seems that the effects are even more devastating for children from low socio-economic backgrounds.
It is well known that children, regardless of their time in history, will often follow trends that are unique to their generations. Several psychologists have produced research in the area of child development, such as Vygotsky, Piaget, and Kohlberg, and Erikson (2000).
Although varied in their areas of focus and approach, these psychologists have all provided some insight into how children develop from developmental age all the way up to adolescence. Some common recurring themes in their research highlight the influence of institutions, such as schools, customs, secular as well as religious, and laws, that detail when an individual is legally an adult, make-up what one would consider to be a society’s culture. The researcher also studied how child development differs from one country to another. For instance, some cultures define early childhood as birth to eight years of age, while other people in the world equate it to five years since it is the entry to formal schooling. Despite these slight differences, most tend to categorize the three stages of
development that encompasses early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence.
Society’s thoughts about what is considered childhood have shifted over time but in the last fifty years, child and educational psychologists have played a much larger role in providing guidance to parents. This research has also facilitated a new understanding of development that takes place in every stage and has been made more accessible than in previous generations. It is important to note emotional maturity, the act of accepting responsibility and self-regulating one’s behavior, and physical maturity, which is usually when a young person becomes physically able to sexually reproduce, are two different types of maturity that may not develop in sync with each other. In many cases, children may become physically mature before they mature emotionally and psychologically.
There is a concern with many parents today that children are growing faster than in previous generations and look to social media and the internet as reasons for this change. Many point to the countless images found in social media that encourage young children to want to look and act like their older counterparts. In the past, most children encountered similar milestones during each stage of development, but in recent years, children look to the Internet for role models who most often are older than they are. When this occurs they try to look older, but emotionally and psychologically they are not equipped to deal with advanced issues and thoughts.
Age-appropriate activities in every developmental stage are regarded as critical in enabling children to grow and develop according to their age and enjoying new experiences. However, in recent years, some children tend to view things and operate as adults’ way ahead of their own chronological age but may not be able to emotionally understand the complexities. For example, a child in middle childhood may act like an adolescent in certain circumstances but much more immature in others. With various people having different opinions on the issue of growth and development among the children, it remains important to reflect whether growing up too fast means missing out on those “best years.”
Some people argue that every child should follow a specific process of growth and development, which Vygotsky highlighted in his social development theory. He states that the environment in which a child is raised has a huge impact on his/her development. Social interaction is also a major theme in his work and this is complicated when children today can digitally interact with much older peers. Vygotsky studied the cognitive development of children, examining logical memory as well as the developmental of social relationships. Cognitive development centers on the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) which examines children engaging in social behavior. ZPD focuses on the importance of social interactions with peers, or adults, to accomplishing and developing a range of social skills. Socialization that is not age-appropriate can cause a child to exhibit, or in some cases merely mimic, mature behavior. When adults help to socialize a child, he or she tends to grow more quickly than others in terms of viewing things and fails to indulge in activities of children of that age. But when children are seeing their peers act older, then tend to act the same way.
Although children who grow up too quickly can occur in any demographic area, those from low-socioeconomic groups seem to be the most affected. Elder presented his findings in 1974 with families who live economically disadvantaged during a recession hastened children and teenagers in maturing into adulthood. In a critical part of his research, poverty as well as family disruptions, such as divorce, can also add to child development issues. Feeling unsafe in daily life represents critical hardships implicated in subjective aging during the early life course. With these studies, an individual builds a foundation to understand better children that grow fast and miss out on their best years. Additionally, it was found that children from divorced families established development concerns with behaviors that were not consistent with their chronological ages.
Hardships were also linked with inconsistent age identities that defined the age-norms and the timing of early entry into age-graded roles. The data in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescents Health examined the connections of hardship experienced in separated domains during adolescence, resulting in feeling older the age of peers in a study of an individual’s age ranging from eighteen to twenty-six.
Violence is also a factor that leads to faster growth among children and adolescents. The acceleration of individual life was altered by the perceptions of a young person with adult-like responsibilities. The daily experience of violence and fear for their safety can raise the possibility of nearing death, and it subjects an individual to be mature before dying. These harsh situations and experiences require a child and adolescent to make adult-like decisions, responsibilities, and stresses. Confronting death and living in fear challenge this childhood notion, and those who feel unsafe and non-normative levels of violence when growing up are expected to age more quickly in subjective terms (Rambau and Somefun, 2018).
It is also essential to reflect on the role culture plays in how children develop. Many of these roles are age-graded and existing literature has confirmed that social roles that form life courses such as retirees, parents, and grandparents are based on age-graded and age identities. Transitioning from one period to another before others is associated with older subjective generations. In the case of young adults and adolescents transitioning into adult roles such as parenthood and marriage working full-time and living independently fosters subjective ages.
It becomes obvious in these instances, that when children have to mature faster than expected, they can be deprived of their “best years.” An individual entering in some situation such as parenthood or marriage must behave in a specific way that resonates with an older man or woman. For a boy who has married in the teenage years, he has to undertake his father’s responsibilities and provide for the family (Schmitz and Tyler, 2015). It also applies to a girl who has become a mother in the teenage years where she has to behave like a grown-up and prioritize her child with issue issues such as hangout with her age mate compromised in the long run. Roles and responsibilities associated with a particular stage in a specific culture influence faster growth and miss out on some of the best years. Becoming a responsible father and mother requires them to focus on the wellbeing of the family and compromise their interests at first.
The goals and visions of an individual play a critical role in his/her perceptions of what issue. Considering these factors, an individual is likely to grow faster and miss out on the best years as they focus on accomplishing and setting these goals because their viewpoints are skewed. In some instances, individuals direct all of their effort in realizing huge dreams hindering enjoyment associated with a certain age in life. There are some cases, however, where children who grow up fast later on become CEO’s or leaders of organizations because they have found ways to productively channel these behaviors.
The existing literature growing faster is absolutely on roles and responsibilities that an individual undertakes at a specific position in life. A higher position held by older adults subjects young adults to transit very fast in the event they have a chance to keep it (Milojević, 2011). They have to change and prioritize issues of that position, meaning they have to grow faster than others in their age group to fill that position adequately.
An individual is presumed to follow a specific set of levels or structures defined by society in life. At a particular age, every person understands and acknowledges what is required from him or her and has to change accordingly to match the required standards. In some societies, a rite of passage used to mark these stages of life and enable an individual to embark on new roles and responsibilities associated with that specific level. In some instances, inconsistencies arise where an individual must grow faster and miss some of their best years in some stages. These kinds of differences include hardships in life where an individual must change and adapt to the situation for survival. While goals and visions also require an individual to adjust and solely focus on how they can achieve with ease. It is about directing effort and mindset on critical issues to fasten the realization of these goals. It is critical to highlight that vision realization needs massive input, and time is a factor. Focusing on the best years is associated with wasting time and for people aiming to accomplish much in life and serving as an example of successful people who need to transition from stage to another faster than expected.
Works Cited
Johnson, Monica Kirkpatrick, and Stefanie Mollborn. “Growing up Faster, Feeling Older: Hardship in Childhood and Adolescence.” Social Psychology Quarterly 72.1 (2009): 39–60. https://doi.org/10.1177/019027250907200105
Milojević, Ivana.
Educational futures: dominant and contesting visions. London: Routledge,
Rambau, Ndivhuwo, and Oluwaseyi Somefun. “Perceptions of community safety and social activity participation among youth in South Africa.” PLoS ONE 13.5 (2018). https://doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0197549
Schmitz, Rachel M., and Kimberly A, Tyler. “Growing Up Before Their Time: The Early Adultification Experiences of Homeless Young People.” Children and Youth Services Review 64.1 (2016): 15–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2016.02.026
Tarren-Sweeney, Michael, and Arlene Vetere. Mental health services for vulnerable children and young people: supporting children who are, or have been, in foster care. New York: Taylor & Francis Group, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1177/135104514560094
Vygotsky, Lev and Piaget, Jean, Kohlberg, Lawrence and Erikson, Erik Mooney, Carol Garhart. Therories of Childhood: An Introduction to Dewey.
St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press, 2000
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