Adult anxieties and risk

‘Anxieties and Risk’ explores the nature of anxiety about risk
and the effect of adult anxieties on the wellbeing of children. Using material from
that chapter and from other parts of the course, discuss the arguments and
evidence that there is an unusual level of anxiety about children today and the
effects of adult anxieties on children’s lives.

Risk is often defined as something which contains elements of hazard or danger but this negative connotation masks alternative meanings of risk and its essential characteristics. Risk taking is important to children’s development as children need to be able to judge risks to develop life skills but parents, carers, children’s practioners and government agencies seem to be more concerned about the negative aspects of risk than ever before. The Social Affairs Unit webpage identifies three kinds of risk;- those which can be perceived directly -climbing trees, crossing roads or walking home alone, those which are perceived through science – where risks are not apparent to the every day senses and only exist through scientific knowledge i.e. cholera which can only be seen under microscope and Virtual risk – risks that are not yet understood or where scientist cannot agree on their effects – mobile phones, low level radiation, pesticides etc.

So are we unusually anxious about children today and if so why? ‘parental fears for children’s safety in public spaces are constructed and mobilised through the media…global and national reporting of violent crimes against children may distort local fears by heightening parents’ awareness of extreme and rare events in public space causing them to restrict their children’s use of space excessively…’ Valentine 2004 (CB1:p133). Concerns about safety and the risk of abuse or violence are not the only target of the media - reporting on other matters such as mobile phone, television and internet usage are common place but popular risk perceptions such as abuse, demonstrate the influence of the media in distorting the true picture of assaults on children by strangers ‘as opposed to the much more common assaults by family members’ (CB2:p168). The media are just one of the reasons for increased anxiety about children, proliferations of advice on parenting are also in the frame for raising anxiety. Palmer 2006 blames ‘parenting experts’ for contributing to ‘toxic childhood syndrome’ by ‘de-skilling parents and leading them to distrust their own instincts’ (CB2:p164). The book entitled Toxic Childhood: How the modern world is damaging our Children and what we can do about it is reported to be an attempt to lessen parental anxiety but is in fact contributing to the problem of the proliferation of parenting advice by offering, well, parental advice, albeit ‘practical and level headed’ (CB2:p164)

Giddens (1991) and Beck (1992) have argued that ‘risks are actively generated by the process of a post-modern society, such as globalisation’ (CB2:p147) and suggested that risks proliferated by globalization are only imperfectly understood. Beck defines these as risks such as climate change, HIV and terrorism and tells us that everyone’s lives, are caught in a defensive battle against hostile influences on daily lives. The crux of Beck & Giddens argument is that the focus is all to often on the negative, i.e. risk avoidance and keeping children safe rather than focusing on the positive benefits of risk taking. Positive benefits of risk taking include practical, neurological, existential and socio-emotional reasons. For practical reasons, children need to be able to practise risk management skills to cope with everyday situations and problem solve. For neurological reasons, children are humans and as such need a certain amount of stimulus to maintain and develop responses, risk taking forms part of this stimulus. For existential reasons, children need to know that they are not indestructible and can be harmed and for socio-emotional reasons, risk taking as part of play helps make and maintain social relationships between children.

Evidence of an unusual level of anxiety about children today is commonplace and particularly after a much publicised disappearance of a child/children (such as Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman). In such circumstances, parental response to such stories is to restrict freedom from children to a lesser extent than previously, particularly in the vicinity, of such high profile cases. From my own experience, I recall that when I went to high school, the number of parents who collected their children were very few and far between with the majority of children making their own way home. Nowadays I notice from working in education, that number of children being collected, is significantly more, to the extent that new schools being built in North Lanarkshire, contain sizeable ‘drop off/pick up’ points close to the school. CB2:p134 contains an comment regarding a trip to a Norwegian school, whereupon the author remarked upon a boy climbing a tree and how this would contravene UK health and safety regulations. CB2:p166 contains excerpts from the media about restrictions being imposed on children’s play. Entitled ‘Better safe than sorry’ it contains many bizarre articles such as, a school banning the playing of ‘Tag’ because the teachers’ say its too rough and a referee who stopped parents taking photos of their children at football matches because he misunderstood the child protection guidelines.

The effects of adult anxieties on children’s lives are numerous and reach into every part of children’s being physically, socially, cognitively and developmentally. For example, lack of freedom to play outdoors has the knock on effect of lack of exercise, cuts down on friendships, lessens opportunities to practise social and negotiations skills, lessens opportunities to learn to compromise and share, to troubleshooting situations, conflict resolution, dealing with bullying, become more independent – the list is endless. Where children are able to play outdoors, risk avoidance determines that our playgrounds should be safe together with the safety standards of the equipment used in playgrounds and very often this means boring. Children instinctively look for somewhere more adventurous to play and usually more dangerous. Children who are left to the ‘virtual’ world of the internet and computer games, suffer much of the same lack of physical, emotional, social and cognitive development and interaction. Palmer 2006 argues that’ virtual-reality adventures on screen are no substitute for real-life everyday adventures…in preparing children for real-life risk assessment’ (CB2:p166). He goes on to determine that children who lack practise in real-life risk assessment become either ‘reckless or excessively timid’ (CB2:p166).

So if children are prevented from being allowed to take risks, not only does it affect them socially, physically, emotionally and cognitively it also disables their learning. Children need to be allowed to make mistakes and learn from them. Carrying out any activity, it would seem, carries a risk but preventing children from taking risk would seem to be the biggest risk of all. We as parents, carers and practitioners need to change our thinking and working to accommodate more risk taking in order to allow children to develop better life skills. Risk theory indicates that society will constantly proliferate new risks and our children and the children of the future must constantly adapt and be able to cope with such risks. In order for our children to become competent risk managers, adults must first assess risk outside of children’s capability and experience, then allow them the freedom to experience risk taking but with the knowledge that adults are at arms length, so to speak, there only if needed. For example, in the course DVD, the Plus Stirling clip entitled ‘Risk’ shows children at the waterside. Some are kayaking, some just playing in the water, some swimming and one boy who appears scared of water, being coaxed to go further and further in each time. At the beginning of the clip, the children are shown, being given specialist clothing to wear for being in the water and buoyancy aids. One boy decides not to wear a cagoule, the staff decide to let him take the risk of getting cold and/or wet and give him the responsibility for telling them if he got cold etc. Other children are told what to do if their kayak rolls over but they would ‘work out the rest as you go on’. All of the children were told to get out of the water on two blasts of the whistle in the event of any foreseen danger. The emphasis of letting the children be in the water was fun but clearly the children were being allowed to take the risk of being in the water and possible drowning. The children themselves were able to do things which they wouldn’t normally be able, in the knowledge and confidence that adults were nearby to help them if they got into trouble. The benefit of risk taking to the boy who was scared of the water was such that he went further each day and learned that nothing went wrong each time he went further thereby increasing his confidence.

Practitioners have a responsibility for the wellbeing of children in their care and therefore have anxieties stemming from this responsibility. Risk management for practitioners is usually laid out for them by company/agency policies and procedures and generally based on the precautionary principle ‘whereby avoidance of risk, however slight, is taken as a guide for action where outcomes are uncertain’ (CB2:p158). This can lead to the primary focus being taken away from children’s learning and development to creating a culture so safe for children, that it actually harms them. Naturally cautious children become unable to learn from experimenting new activities and as a consequence are not encouraged to overcome their fears etc. Similarly confident children can become reckless and unable to sensibly handle the hazards of daily life because there has always been an adult to get them out of trouble and judge risk for them. As children need the opportunity to make judgements about risks, practitioners attitudes are crucial in encouraging or suppressing children’s behaviour.

Risk has been defined as those which we can see or are apparent to the senses, those which are not apparent to the senses and virtual risk. The negative connotation of risk means that its benefits are often over looked or ignored but children need to learn from taking risks. It is important that children develop risk-taking as a life skill in order to equip them for later life. Unfortunately adult anxieties about risk have been fuelled by events by the media, who have distorted the true picture about attacks on children. Coupled with advances in technology, reporting incidences such as a missing child, means that the incident suddenly becomes national news, provoking sympathy from parents but adding to the negative subsequent reaction that seems to follow, whereby parents reduce freedom to their child’s movements and activities as a direct result. Other reasons for increased anxieties about children come in the form of parenting advice books and articles which seemingly also focus on risk avoidance rather than the benefits of allowing children to take them. Evidence that there is more anxiety about children today than ever before can be seen everywhere – at any school when the children are dismissed for the day (the number of parents who collect their children), teachers being unwilling to take responsibility for taking their pupils on school trips, boring equipment in rubberised tarmac playgrounds. The effects of adult anxieties on children’s lives affect their physical, social and emotional and cognitive development. Where children are unable to play outdoors, the knock on effect is that they lack exercise, it affects there friendships, their test bed for development of their social skills and their interaction with conflict, negotiation, compromise and troubleshooting all become reliant on adult supervised times. Their opportunity to learn to become independent decreases and dependence on adults, increases. As practitioners, everyday working practise and risk management is normally laid out by policy and guidelines and the focus is usually on risk avoidance rather than risk allowance. It is therefore crucial that practitioners have a balanced attitude toward risk and encourage or suppress children’s behaviour in accordance with their need for risk and a duty to keep them safe.


References

CB1: Course Book 1: Connecting with Children, developing working relationships Foley & Leverett, Bristol, The Policy Press in association with the Open University Press. p = page number


CB2: Course Book 2: Promoting Children’s Wellbeing, policy and practice Collins & Leverett, Bristol, The Policy Press in association with the Open University Press. p = page number
DVD The Open University course KE312 from the Plus Stirling sector.