While people believe that it is the responsibility of the child to excel academically, parents always want their children to be the best in academics. They always do their best to ensure that they children’s academic needs are met without any compromise. This heavy investment calls for a strict supervision and tagging of high targets for these children. However, whenever these targets are not met, a lot of psychological and behavioral problems that may have adverse effects on the affected children. Even though parents try their best to ensure their children excel, they still face psychological and behavioral challenges among their children
Parental Expectations and Children’s Psychological Problems
Depression
Anna-Maija in her book, ‘Depression and School Performance in Middle Adolescent Boys and Girls’ states that depression is a psychological disorder in which a person feel disappointed and of low self esteem, mood and generally sad. She says that parents high expectations on the children’s performance has very strong link to their children’s depression especially when such children fail to meet their parents targets. Many parents in the United Arabs Emirates wish to see their children excel in their school performances and thus set for them high targets to meet. As much as these children strive to achieve these targets, in some cases they absolutely don’t hit them. In the United Arabs Emirates, parenting styles are highly based on the Islamic culture which is accompanied with a lot of strictness and authoritarian approach to their children. In other words, there are a lot of demands imposed on children by their parents regarding their school performance such as even setting for them the grades. (Nissinen, Pelkonen and Anna-Maija, 2008)
When these Arable children’s performance falls short of their parents’ expectations, they are scorned, quarreled and at times punished. Even before these children inform their parents of their poor performance, they shy off due to the hostility they expect from their parents. Besides, many Arabic parents would wish or expect their children to join high careers such as engineering, medicine and aeronautics. Contrary to this, the parents do not look at professions such as arts and music as essential. Although children face such psychological challenges, parents need to work tooth and nail to improve their children’s parents.
Parental Expectations and Children’s Behavioral Problems
Conduct disorders in children refers to a repetitive and persistent pattern of an antisocial, aggressive and defiant behavior. These behavioral disorders are graver and go beyond the normal childish misconduct or misbehavior. Arabic children who are accosted by their parents due to poor performance in their school academics exhibit various forms of misconduct disorders. They do have a personal feeling that there are disappointment to their parents and resort to mischievous behavior. These children may become victims to behavior such as being aggressive to people and animals, deceitful, destroy property and even indulge into juvenile delinquency. With the behavioral challenges, it is the responsibility of the parents to instill discipline in their children so that they can maximize their potential at school. (Taylor, Hill and Lorraine, 2004)
The effects of Psychological & Behavioral Problems on Children’s Life
These psychological and behavioral disorders have adverse effects on the victims. These children may become victims to behavior such as being aggressive to people and animals, deceitful, destroy property and even indulge into juvenile delinquency. When a child withdraws from class concentration, he cannot grasp information as the teacher relays it. Another psychological disorder that can affect the child is brain-block. When the child decides not to grasp any information, he cannot take in anything that he needs in his academic. Truancy is another behavior that can ruin a child’s life. Missing lessons and school programs may finally reflect negatively on a child’s performance. Children may fake several reasons to miss lessons, thereby promoting deceit among them. (Vellymalay, 2012)
A teacher is a very important person in a child’s life. In fact, when a child hates a teacher, it is possible that he will hate the subject that the teacher teaches. As a result, such a child is likely to perform dismally in academics. Intention misbehavior in class like noise making, excessive aggressiveness are the causes of strikes in schools. Children who engage in such antisocial behavior are unlikely to fail in academics. In United Arabs Emirates, the parents see to it that children uphold moral values even at school. School going children at certain age are likely to be attracted to the opposite sex. Such behavior at tender age is immoral and can have a lifelong effect on the child. Premarital sex among students has both academic and social effects on the child. For example, school going girls may get unplanned pregnancies thereby terminating their education. More dangerously for both boys and girls may get infectious diseases such as syphilis and HIV/AIDS. Luckily for United Arabs Emirates, the Islamic culture promotes morality and it is rare to find children engaging in premarital sex. Unity is strength and the more united a child is with classmate, the more he is likely for prosper academically. When a student is out-going and a long well with others, they share different academic issues which eventually will contribute to their academic performance. With all these effects of behavioral and psychological disorders, all is not lost. The parents can still look for several remedies on their part and the part of the children. (Taylor, Hill and Lorraine, 2004)
Recommendations
Role of Parents.
The role of parents in the performance of their children is important. However, children must also cooperate with their parents. Parents should contribute positive towards their children’s performance in school. In fact, parents should play the role of providing proper guidance and counseling in case the children deviate from their norms. The strictness of the Muslim culture should also be a factor of review in accordance to modern technology. The world is changing so fast and at times some of the traditional and religious practices become incompatible with the modern technology. They can provide modern learning equipment like computers to enhance the learning at school.
Similarly, girl child education should be embraced through encouragement and support. Again, it is the responsibility of the parents to provide material and moral support to their parents. They should ensure that their children do not engage in activities that could ruin their lives like drug and substance abuse. Children should avoid engaging in drugs and substance abuse. These substances can destruct the children’s attention at school and eventually contribute to poor performance. The parents must act as role models since whatever they do has a direct influence on their children’s performance and their general behavior. Religious guidance is also important as it shapes the spiritual well-being of a child. A religious child can rarely goes astray and fail in academic endeavors. As a parent, the child depends on you for moral support and encouragement. Research indicates that encouraging words from a parent can bring a positive result in a child’s academic performance. The parent should always assess the progress of the child by constantly reward and advise their children. This makes the student feel that the parent is fully involved in his education. Provision of the necessary stationery for the child is very important. Parents should their children current books that give comprehensive and simple information. Parents should also work to pay school fees for their children it the right of the child to get education. As such parents should pay school fees on time to avoid situation of children missing classes. In addition, parents should guide their children in career choice. Although children are the ones to make the final decision, the parent can advise them on the best career choices to maximize their potential. I still believe that the child has to work hard, with the help of parents and teachers to perform well academically. (Vellymalay, 2012)
Role of children
Academic performance of a child depends on his determination and hard work. The child should take it upon them to put more effort in academic work. The Arabian children should understand that their parent always work hard to ensure that they get the best out of the schooling process. Even if they don’t live to their parents expectations, this should not be interpreted to be a condemnation. They should always take a low profile to ensure that they do not trigger anxiety and uncertainty in their parents. These students should always work extra hard to achieve in their academic performances. In cases where the students experience difficulties, they should seek the intervention of their teachers to talk to their parents. They should also work hand in hand with their teachers to see to it that they understand whatever is taught in class. In case there is an area they require clarification, they should be ready and willing to share with the teacher. The children should understand that their performance at school is their sole responsibility. (Nissinen, Pelkonen and Maija, 2008)
Concentration in class is important for any child who wants to succeed in academic. Knowledge of God is very important in any human being’s success. Children should strive to respect God and follow His ways. A student must avoid peer pressure and strive to do the right thing at the right time. Some peer groups can be helpful while others can be destructive. However, the children should understand that their parents commit a lot of resources and time to make sure that the children’s future lives are worth living. In recognizing this fact, children should always try as much as they can to meet their targets. Furthermore, these targets are always set through consensus between parents and their children. During this consensus building process, the children should be open and let their parents know both their strengths and weaknesses. This would help reduce the severity of negative outcomes in their school performances.
References
Eeva S. Nissinen, Mirjami U.I. Pelkonen and Anna-Maija Koivisto. (2008). Depression and
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Hornby, G. (2011). Parental Involvement in Childhood Education: Building Effective School-
Family Partnerships. New York: Springer,.
Michael Day and Harl Hurwitz. (, 2007). Children And Their Art: Methods for the Elementary
Taylor, N. E. (2004). Parental School Involvement and Children's Academic Achievement :
Pragmatics and Issues. Current Directions in Psychological Science (13), 161.
Vellymalay, S. K. (2012). Parental Involvement at Home and Students’ Academic Achievement.
International Journal of Social Science Tomorrow , 1 (4), 1-7.
