Children's Needs – Parenting Capacity - Digital Education Resource ...

166 Children’s Needs – Parenting Capacityhaving to make new pals all the time, really, I couldn’t handle that, it was justpure nerve-wracking every time I went to a new school.(Child of problem drug-using parent, quoted in Barnard 2007, p.86)Emotional and behavioural developmentExpected developmentAdolescence is a period when children are striving for independence, which mayinvolve them in conflicts with parents. To be able to experiment and stretchthemselves, children of this age need the secure base of close, stable attachments(Daniel et al. 2000).In early adolescence emotions are frequently unstable and poorly controlled. ‘Theycan fly into a rage at short notice and burst out laughing with little provocation’ (Fahlberg1991, p.102). There may be considerable strife with parents but on the wholechildren are loved and trusted, and adults in general are viewed as trustworthy.Children may assert themselves by talking back to parents, or striking outphysically or by throwing things. As children get older, verbal responses becomemore frequent; as teenagers gain greater control over their emotions they can appearundemonstrative. Physical responses to anger are less common, and increasinglythe child resorts to swearing, name calling and sarcasm. Although the teenage yearsare assumed to be a period of heightened stress, a survey carried out in 1999 foundonly 11.5% of young people aged 11-15 years had any mental disorder (Meltzer etal 2000).Scottish-based research suggests 13.8% of young people aged 15–16 years inScotland admitted to self-harm – a rate in line with that identified for England.Girls were approximately 3.4 times more likely to self-harm than boys. In addition,almost one in four of those who reported self-harm also said they wanted to die(O’Connor et al. 2009).Leaving children of any age in the sole care of adolescents under the age of 16is strongly discouraged in Britain. Nonetheless, in many families older siblingsoccasionally look after younger brothers and sisters. Research from Scandinaviancountries suggests some 70% of young children with older siblings have been lookedafter by them. Although caretaking by older siblings is shown to lack the quality ofparental care, both the looked-after child and the caretaker can benefit from theoccasional experience (Kosonen 1996).Adolescent worries and fears tend to centre on school and social issues. Concernsabout appearance, friends, exams and performing in public are commonplace.Teenagers may also worry about their health, and minor ailments or blemishes canbe interpreted as a crisis.