Challenges at Home
- Owing to the disintegration of the intact family unit, many of today’s youth grow up with both parents working, leaving them to have to tend to them-selves right from their early years.
- Rise in competition has pressurised children to perform well academically and to meet the high expectations of parents and peers.
- Generation gaps lead to conflict and misunderstanding between parents and children; these unresolved relational issues may cause resentment, anger and stress among children who may grow up feeling unsupported.
Challenges at School
- Peer Pressure: At school, students come under additional pressure to outperform their peers academically as they are cheered on toward indi-vidual excellence
- Adolescent Years: They find themselves in situations of conflict, which may cause anger and alienation resulting in mental health challenges and sometimes even violence. As they enter their adolescent years, they grapple with the challenges of low self-esteem and confidence.
- Seeking Sense of Belonging: Born into the information age, today’s children grow up seeking human connection and love, and yearning for a sense of belonging to something bigger than themselves. Thus, they may give into peer pressure and adopt unhealthy habits as a means to ‘fit in’.
Challenges of Growing-up Years
- Multiple priorities, lack of clarity and sense of purpose and an anchor to ground them, leave children confused and anxious.
- Young individuals today experience stressors and pressures beginning at a young age that cause early onset of chronic diseases, mental and emotional health challenges.
- Faced with an environment that expects more from them than any other generation before them leaves children stressed, overwhelmed, disempow-ered and unsure of their place in the world. These are deep impressions, all of which they carry with them into young adulthood and into the world.
