I have not experience any stressors as a child but I do know my best friend/cousin experience some violence in her life with her mom and dad. She explained to me how her dad was addicted to drugs and would come home and verbally abuse her and physically abuse her mom. I could tell that it really affected her because I just found this out not to long ago. She cope with the situations by doing what she loves which is singing and she said it made her realize how she did not want to live once she was older. She is a year older than me and today she has a very respectful boyfriend. Some children that grows up in that situation tend to follow into the footsteps of their parents. She could have ended up on drugs did her father or a abuse relationship like her mother. I believe with her coming around my family and spending time with me as little girls she got a chance to see a happy Christian lifestyle. I had to go to church every Sunday with my mom and dad plus they have been married sense my mom was nineteen. When you grow up with a family or knowing a family can be functional then a child can set their expectations the same for when they grow up.
I know that diseases are a big stressor in Africa and many children are born with diseases. It saddens me to know a child has to live with a disease for the rest of their life that they had no control over. Africa is affected by the HIV and AIDS virus and many children are affected by the disease. This disease is effecting a child’s development in many ways such as growth in organs and body. And the best way for mothers and fathers to minimize the stressor is to practice safe sex and use condoms.
