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June 2001
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New York City
July 2002

About Children and Depression
By Lorraine McCune, Ph.D.

Every moment of infant and childhood happiness is precious. As the adults in charge, parents or professionals, we hold the possibility of children’s happiness, sadness, or depression in our power. A natural state of healthy well-being comes from a sense that we are safe, that we know our powers and their limits, and we know that a cushion of support, parental, familial, societal, surrounds us, taking up the slack where our own powers are limited. For very young children, their powers are limited indeed, and the sense of an adult at the ready, some one especially for them, is essential to well-being. This is the simple basis of attachment theory. In infancy one or both parents, perhaps other relatives, and in some cases, professional caregivers fulfill this essential role. The seeds of childhood well-being, a general sense of happiness rather than sadness or depression is sown in the early years through the availability of an adult to “attune” to the young child, providing psychologically intimate understanding, as well as nourishment and physical contact.

During the early months, infants of depressed mothers have been found to show much lower frequency of happy facial expressions, and much more frequent sadness or anger than comparison infants whose parents were not depressed. Adults’ own mental health is a serious contributor to children’s emotional well-being. We may not think that young children can be “depressed” as adults can, and the situation is, of course very different. However, children of any age can experience a diminution of interest, activity and learning due to feelings of sadness and insecurity. Sometimes their depressed state is expressed by excessive quieting, a dangerous situation for pre-school and school age children, whose troubles may go unnoticed because they are so “good”. At the other extreme, childhood depression is transformed into anger and acting out. Children who have experienced abuse are more likely than others to injure themselves accidentally, through diminished attention to the environment, or a lack of sufficient caring for their own well-being. They are more likely to attribute malevolent intentions to peers in ambiguous situations, leading to fighting and bullying. These disruptive behaviors are always symptomatic, so that along with disciplinary strategies, therapeutic attention need also be paid.

Parents and professionals need to monitor the emotional well-being of the children in their care, just as they monitor physical health and progress in learning and development. Within the family, proactive support such as listening to your children with attention as they report the sometimes mundane interests of their world, broadening those interests through book reading, joint television watching, and trips with your child to fun places, especially with the summer months upon us, are all ways of enhancing the sense of well-being and preventing potential mental health problems.

It is also important to assist children with the necessary challenges of their lives. Divorce and loss through death come to mind as circumstances extremely challenging to children. These are also challenges which cast adults into emotional upheaval or deep sadness. It can be difficult in these circumstances to remember the special needs of children who may seem happy-go-lucky through it all. Don’t be fooled by bravado. Sometimes children need to hide their sadness even from themselves until it diminishes naturally in intensity, or until an adult reaches out. #

Dr. Lorraine McCune is a professor at the Rutgers University Graduate School of Education and serves as advisor to educational toy company, General Creation. She can be reached at www.generalcreation.com in the “Ask Dr. McCune” section.

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Education Update, Inc., P.O. Box 20005, New York, NY 10001.
Tel: (212) 481-5519. Fax: (212) 481-3919.Email: ednews1@aol.com.
All material is copyrighted and may not be printed without express consent of the publisher. © 2002.


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