Opening an Emotional Dialogue with Your Young Child

For us, life was simpler, less demanding, and, for the most part, everything was "okay" the next day as our parents suggested it would be. Yet as parents, we know that children today face a more complex world than we did as kids.

According to a report in The Journal of Personality and Psychology, schoolchildren in the 1980s reported more anxiety than children of the 1950s. In all, the study found that children in the '50s diagnosed with mental disorders were actually less anxious than even average kids are today.

The Mental Health Association also reports that one in five children today has a diagnosable mental or behavioral disorder, and up to one in ten may suffer from a disorder such as severe emotional and/or clinical depression or anxiety.