Children of the Garden Island

Kauai also referred to as the Garden Island is a hundred miles away from Honolulu and it lies northwest of the Hawaii. Most of Kauai residents are immigrants from Southeast of Asian and Europe; these immigrants came to this place with the aim of finding a better future to sustain their families with the majority of them working on the sugar plantation farms. According to Werner (1955), she and her colleagues were able to carry on a study which lasted for more than three decades; their aim of the investigation was to assess the long-term effects of prenatal and perinatal stress of children and how this affected them even up to their youth. The study also aimed at learning how children grew physically, mentally, psychologically, and emotionally. The people of Kauai were very cooperative, and this made the study successful.

Prenatal are the psychological effects and implications an individual is exposed to before birth whereas perinatal is the psycho-physiological effects a child are exposed to immediately after childbirth. Both prenatal and perinatal experiences affect the psychological development of a child in their growth and even as they mature. The residents of Kauai were much exposed to chronic poverty, alcoholism, early pregnancies, divorces, family discord, poor rearing conditions, and parental mental illness; these factors are what facilitated much to the prenatal and perinatal problem in children something which affected the majority of them even up to their adulthood. Children, who were affected before and after birth most likely developed mental illness, became physically disabled, and some had serious learning problem which made them not even to complete their education. 

Children raised in unstable families and under poor conditions were most affected psychologically compared to children raised in stable families as most of them survived the trauma and grew well just as the healthy kids who did not get exposed to prenatal and perinatal stress. Women who had finished their high school most of their children were well taken care of and survived well without many problems compared to babies born to teen parents or uneducated parents. Some kids were resilient as they recovered and adapted quickly from the adverse conditions and they did well in school and did not have any negative effect after recovering. Balancing between stress and protective factors leads to adaptation of success to children traumatized before or after birth but when anxiety outweighs protection problems arises.

Prenatal and perinatal situations can hurt the lives of children and even as they grow up at it is seen in the Kauai study. I support the study of the leading causes of stress to children is affected by some factors such as poverty, poor rearing conditions, divorce, early pregnancy, and parental alcoholism. Prenatal and perinatal stress can lead to stunted growth in children, learning problems, and mental health illness since the children are affected emotionally. Some kids can cope with the conditions as they may completely recover and do well in life. I support this study because most cases of prenatal and perinatal stress mostly affect children who are born to teenage parents, raised in a dangerous condition and parental mental illness which can be passed to the child before or after immediately after birth. For example in my society children may be born with problems but if they are born in a stable family it is easy for them to recover easily and look as healthy as other kids but those born in chronic poverty instead of improving they end up getting worse and have mental illness throughout their lives. Additionally, children born due to early pregnancies are always at high risk because the mother is not aware of how she should take care of her pregnancy or the baby after giving birth and due to their young age complications may occur which has long-term effects on the child.

Reference

Werner, Emmy. (1955). Children of the Garden Island. Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press.