Show business comes with numerous challenges despite the stardom, pomp, and riches it presents for those involved. As Cianci (2008) identifies, the entertainment industry will complicate the childhood of any young person due to all the aspects that play into being a star at this age. Just like their grown-up counterparts, children will be subjected to the hardships of show business including being forced to give up one’s childhood, working for long hours and other pressures that come with being in the entertainment industry. These pressures include the continuous desire for one to be perfect, rejection from those who may not support their career choices, jealousy, and constant self-scrutiny. All these aspects of the entertainment industry and being a childhood celebrity will result in psychological distress for these young stars. These aspects push these young individuals into risky behavior as a way of coping with what is affecting them.
Even with these stressors presenting themselves from the entertainment world, children will be influenced into risky behavior by other aspects of their development. As Holden (2009) shows aspects like peers, marital conflict between parents, electronic media and school may push a child into risky behavior. Peers have a significant influence on what a child does, and in the entertainment industry, a child’s peers will influence his or her decisions to a great extent. For instance, if the peers are already engaging in risky behavior, they will influence the young individual into such behavior. Further, marital conflict will act as a significant stressor in a child’s life to the level that he or she blames themselves and therefore resorts to risky behavior as a form of solace.
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As Holden (2009) shows, marital conflict often exhibits negative emotions, and it is especially distressing for children who observe and experience these emotions from their parents. Marital conflict results in behavior problems in children who are directly affected. It is likely that children will model the behavior they observe in their parents because they might assume that it is how they are supposed to behave (Holden, 2009). Such behaviors are compounded upon in the case the child becomes a child star. He or she will likely increase the consistency and intensity of these behaviors because of the overall challenging entertainment environment. The intensity of these behaviors will mean that these children easily diverge to the use of drugs or abuse of alcohol as a defense mechanism for the challenges that have followed them from home into their early careers.
Electronic media also influence the engagement of a childhood star in risky behavior. The avenue is easily accessible and portrays messages that praise such behaviors as drug use and abuse making a child want to engage in such behaviors and eventually resorting to engage. Any form of electronic media is often of interest to children, and the current technological advancement wave means that children can easily access these forms of media (Holden, 2009). Advertisements present on these media will eventually push children to risky behavior. It is further risky for children in the entertainment industry because they are part of these forms of media and easily come into contact with these advertisements and messages of praise towards risky behavior especially the use and abuse of alcohol and drugs. As it stands, parenting, external factors and the entertainment industry present stressors that will influence a child star into risky behavior.
References
Cianci, C. C. (2008). Entertainment or Exploitation: Reality Television and the Inadquate Protection of Child Participants under the Law. S. Cal. Interdisc. LJ , 18 , 363.
Holden, G. W. (2009). Parenting : a dynamic perspective. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com Created from umuc on 2019-02-06 17:55:44.
