GAC002 Assessment Event 4: Academic Research Essay

Forcing On Children:
Does it Really Works?

Students Name: Tsamara Alifia

Student ID #:
Teacher: Due Date: Word Count:

20110035
Jennifer Ruden 3 December 2012 513

GAC002 AE#4

Tsamara Alifia

20110035

Question: What are the effects on children when their parents force them to do any kind of activity (for example; play a sport, learn a language, or learn to play a musical instrument) in their leisure time? Support your ideas with evidence and relate this to your own experience, or experience you have witnessed.

Why parents force kids to do many kinds of activities?

Parents always want the best for their children, especially when it comes to extracurricular activity such as sports. They would prefer to spend their money to put their child in a soccer club than buying them a new game console. A lot of parents think that join some extracurricular activities can develop the childrens talents, build up their character, and even help them to get a scholarship for college. Sometimes, parents enthusiasm of making children play a sport or join an activity can make the children feels uncomfortable, worried, and depressed because of the pressure they got from their parents.

Why forcing isnt a good idea?

Many parents thought by pushing their kids to play sport or join many kinds of activities would lead to the kids successful in the future. Amy Chua, the author of the book Tiger Mom that was released on 2011 also used this forceful method to raise her children. In her case, she forced her daughters, Sophia and Louisa, to play piano and violin. She didnt allow her daughters to play games, watch TV, have a date or do other activities that most of the children at her daughters age always did. Instead of enjoying their life as a teenager, her daughters fell into depression. Children got the pressure when they messed up with something because they feel like humiliating themselves and the parents by letting their parents down. A research in Amsterdam also found out that almost 80% of children that being forced by their parents said that the pressure they got is a big problem for them (Children PressLine, 2009). Depression on children is surprisingly more threatening in Asian country like China, which has more discipline culture and percentage of 68% of parental pressure problems based on surveys (Wike & Horowitz, 2006). The percentage is really high if compared to America, Spain and Russia that has less than 15% of parental problems, which is 11% for America, 8% for Spain, and 13% for Russia (Pew Research Center,

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2011). For suicide cases due to parental pressure problems, a review that begun in February that supported by the Social Welfare Department found that five over 14 children suicide had something to do with pressures from school and parents. Pressure leads them to feel depressed, annoyed, become sneaky, and rebellious. The pressure become much bigger when theyre the only children in the family. They got tons of pressure from parents because theyre the only children that their parents have to worry about. Parents must realize that there wont be any worthy effects if they keep forcing their children to join activities based on what they want, not what the childrens want. Instead of being well trained for their future, the kids will feel depressed and annoyed. By forcing, children wont enjoy the activity either. Parents should encourage them, not giving them pressure and put their own pleasure in the first place instead of their kids. Aside of making the children happy, it would also create a good parent-childhood bond.

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References
Childrens PressLine (2009), Pressure to do well in school stressed kids out, CPL Media [online]. Available at: http://www.cplmedia.org/story.php?story=1264 [Accessed 11 November 2012] Adhikari, P. (2007), Too much pressure on children, China Daily [online]. Available at: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2007-10/19/content_6189710.htm [Accessed 11 November 2012] Borkar, R. (2011), Peer Pressure Statistics, Buzzle [online]. Available at: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/peer-pressure-statistics.html [Accessed 11 November 2012] Wike, R. & Horowitz, J. M. (2006), Parental Pressure on Students: Not Enough in America; Too much in Asia, Pew Research [online]. Available at: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/55/parental-pressure-on-students-not-enough-in-america-too-much-in-asia [Accessed 12 November 2012] Pew Research Center (2011), The parental amount of pressure on students throughout the world, Statista [online]. Available at: http://www.statista.com/statistics/221159/parental-amount-of-pressure-on-students-throughout-the-world/ [Accessed 12 November 2012] The John Hopkins Center (2012), Parents Values and Childrens Perceived Pressure: Topical Research Series #4, CTY [online]. Available at: http://cty.jhu.edu/research/topical/pressure.html [Accessed 13 November 2012]

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