Week 9 Context Presentation – Psychology of moving as a child
Moving is often thought of as one of the most stressful situations someone is placed in. This is stress is only compounded upon when you are a young child, thought to be abandoned by your mama and moving from New York City to a wealthy suburb. While the stress levels are apparent I would like to dive deeper into the psychology of children when they are moving.
Deming is faced with an incredibly difficult situation, his mother never returns from work one day, leaving the young child to think he has been abandoned. One can only imagine the levels of anxiety this would bring on. Moving can ruin important friendships and disrupt a balance that a child may being to form in their life. This effect is even worse for children who, “are introverted and those whose personalities tend toward anxiety and inflexibility” (Darling 2010). Deming certainly faces these issues which only get worse when he moves upstate. Moving is often times something that one cannot control, similar to his mothers disappearance. These types of rash and sudden changes make it difficult for one to form any sort of identity. Moving during childhood raises the chances of mental health problems by nearly three times (Thriveworks 2018). Changes like these tend to make children less resilient and mores sensitive. Stability is vital to a young child, something that Deming is clearly deprived of during his young teenage years. These situations lead to fewer high quality relationships, lower life satisfaction, and lower sense of personal well being (Thriveworks 2018).
Deming not only faces the stress of moving to the suburbs during The Leavers. He also faces the added stress of his missing mother, continued pressure to forget his cultural roots, and discrimination within his new community. Regardless of the situation before the move, this sudden change in Deming’s life certainly affects him on a scale that you may have not already assumed.
References:
Darling, Nancy. “Moving Is Tough for Kids.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 11 July 2010, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/thinking-about-kids/201007/moving-is-tough-kids.
Guest. “Moving Is Tough for Kids and Can Potentially Impact Their Mental Health: Here’s How You Can Make It Easier for Them – Thriveworks.” Counseling and Life Coaching – Find a Counselor, 3 Feb. 2020, thriveworks.com/blog/moving-tough-kids-impact-mental-health/.
I like your thought process. You thought of his level of stress not only from the abandonment from his mother (which would be overwhelmimng as a child), but the move upstate. It is the change in environment, the change in people he must learn to know, their culture, change in schools, change in curriculum, and so on. It would send many children into depression.
When reading I did not think into it this much until now. The abandonment would be the worse in my opinion. There would be many mixed feelings. My personal feeling would mostly argue towards my biological mother.
Your presentation gives a understandable explanation on the psychology of what happens to a child when they move. I understand the stress it puts on an individual when they have to move from an environment they are so used to, to a whole new environment let alone without their parents or in this instance his mother. The first time I ever move was when I was going off to college, it was very stressful. I was over an hour away from my family. I got home sick often. I wasn’t used to the college environment. I really do understand the anxiety that comes with being out of your comfort zone. But this presentation gives a better understanding of what it’s like to be as a child because I never moved at a young age or was removed for my family in anyway. This presentation also shows how his culture and identity he were completely change when he was placed with his American Foster parents. Deming’s identity was changed a great deal such has having his name changed to an American name.
I really liked your Context Presentation. I think it’s really easy to forget exactly how big of an effect that moving has on a child, especially in Deming’s case where his move was massively overshadowed by other events in the story. It’s likely that the shock and change of moving had a significant effect on his later life as well, as opposed to just the bigger factors that are covered more in the story. I never really moved that much as a child, so it was interesting and educational to see just how much that kind of a situation can affect someone’s childhood.
In 2014, my family moved to a new school district, new home, new community. I was entering high school at the time and moving was the most stressful thing I could have experienced. I was a pretty shy teenager already at the time but not ready for the new changes I would have to adapt to. Just like Deming’s situation, I had no control over this decision my parents made. Compared to the statistics, moving schools was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. I made the school soccer and basketball team which allowed me to open up to other students, meet their friends and have something to be involved with in the community. Deming’s situation with his mother is something I wish no child ever has to go through, but he grew strength and power personally which made him a more independent boy.
Thank you for the presentation. I think moving has a huge impact on a child. Let a child enter a new, completely unfamiliar environment, and need to be exposed to new people and things, which is likely to cause psychological trauma to the child and autism. Although I haven’t experienced Deming’s experience personally, I can imagine that if it were me, I would be autistic. At the same time, Deming’s mother abandoned him, he must be very helpless. He can’t control his life, he can only insist on living this kind of life, which will definitely not be very pleasant.
Your presentation adds a deeper understanding of what Deming was going through when his life unexpectedly changed. He was already dealing with the anxiety of worrying about his mothers safety or whether she left him, and moving upstate didn’t help. Ridgeborough was a completely different world than New York, and Deming had to deal with being the only kid in school who wasn’t white. Deming’s entire life changed completely in just a few months.
Your context presentation does a great job on explaining how moving can affect children. I know from my experiences, moving to at least six different houses with my family and one of those times moving two hours away from our family, and back again to the same area that I grew up in. It can be stressful, finding where you fit in and finding friends, was always difficult for me, being on the quieter side. And as a child, I didn’t really get a say in where we moved, but as I got older my siblings and I were able to share our opinions on the houses my parents were looking at renting. You did a good job explaining the details about how identity and culture affect Deming when he was moving.
Hello, thank you for the background information. Moving during childhood, such as moving house, can increase the incidence of mental health problems in children. Deming in the book is a typical example, and he also suffers from the worries of his mother’s disappearance. When my brother was in elementary school, we moved twice. He also changed schools twice. He needed to adapt to the new environment. He lost the friends he usually knew. He might be alone in school at first. This had an impact on his character. He was more introverted and not talkative during that time.
Thank you for your research into this life event that is often glossed over! I moved when I was in elementary school and had to completely start over and remember how hard it was for me. That being said I often don’t have much sympathy for the difficulties of moving not because it isn’t hard but because I felt my own difficulties were never really validated. This research into the topic helped me remember that moving actually is quite difficult and can have a large impact on a child. My move wasn’t nearly as hard as demings but this background research helped remind me I have more ways the empathize with deming than I realized.
Thank you for the post, I think that is very helpful. I can understand how anxiety Deming is when his mother abandoned him. As you mentioned, “Moving can ruin important friendships and disrupt a balance that a child may being to form in their life.” I agree with that. I can feel he is very anxious and disappointed to continue to live in United States as an identity of Asian immigrant. He would be discrimminated and be treated badly by other people, and mother are supposed to let him know how to live in that society. Since his mother is leaving, he would face the unknown future and things in society by himself. Thank you again to share the psychology of Deming in that situation.