Although stress is a part of life and growing up, you need to intervene when you sense that it is undermining your child's physical or psychological well-being. Here are some clues that stress may be having too negative an effect.
- Your child develops physical symptoms like headaches and stomach pains.
- He seems restless, tired, and agitated.
- He appears depressed and is uncommunicative about how he feels.
- He gets irritable, negative, and shows little excitement or pleasure in his activities.
- He seems less interested in an activity that was once extremely important to him and prefers to stay at home.
- His grades at school begin to fall, and he has less interest than usual in attending classes and doing homework.
- He exhibits antisocial behavior such as lying and stealing, forgets or refuses to do his chores, and seems much more dependent on you than in the past.