healthy kids
THANK YOU
FAMILY STORIES I
Help Kids Cope During Tough Times by Ronica O’Hara
n these challenging times as our children struggle to cope with a swiſt ly chang- ing world, one of the best things we can
To the healthcare professionals who are risking their lives during this epidemic, thank you for fighting COVID-19 on the front lines.
do is simply to let them know what strong stuff they come from. Decades of research show that children that know their family’s stories—especially how their parents, grand- parents, aunts, uncles and other forebears overcame adversity—have the ability to handle societal and personal trauma better. “Family stories help children feel safe,
secure and grounded,” says psychology professor Robyn Fivush, Ph.D., director of the Family Narratives Lab at Emory Uni- versity, in Atlanta. “T e stories provide a sense that they belong to something larger than themselves.” In the midst of unsettling events, she says it’s especially important for children to know that the family has been through hard times before and persevered. Emory research shows that children,
teens and young adults that know more of their family’s narratives have a greater sense of control over their lives, more self-esteem, better grades, higher social competence, less anxiety and depression, and fewer behavior problems. Aſt er 9/11,
20 Austin Area Edition
AustinAwakenings.com
children that tested high in measures of family narratives proved to be more resil- ient and less stressed. Family stories can be of loss—“Once
we had it all”—or of triumph—“We came up from nowhere”—but the most powerful stories are those that show both the peaks and the valleys, the hilarious escapades and deep losses. “Even simply hearing what other people wish they could have done diff erently helps to off er children a broader perspective to current experiences,” says Carrie Krawiec, a family therapist at Bir- mingham Maple Clinic, in Troy, Michigan. Accounts of the deepest trauma also prove formative: Knowing how their great-grand- parents survived the Holocaust gave young adults a sense of gratitude, pride, courage and a greater religious commitment, a University of Pennsylvania study found. Stories unfold easily at holiday
dinners and during long car rides; even during an ordinary dinner, some kind of story—“Guess what happened today at the store?”—occurs about every fi ve minutes, Fivush’s research shows. But summer vaca- tion or days spent together inside a house
jannoon028/
Shutterstock.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32
