Why does stress and anxiety prevent children from growing taller?
A study by the Yale Child Health Research Center found that if parents and teachers often reprimand, scold, or even discriminate against, intimidate, or physically punish children, it may affect their height to varying degrees. At the base of the human brain, there is a tissue called hypothalamus, whose role is to stimulate and produce growth-promoting hormones according to the weak signals coming from the neural network. If the nerves are overstressed and depressed, the child’s growth hormone production will be reduced, resulting in stunted growth and even dwarfism.
According to a recent report by the New York State Psychological Institute, girls who live with stress and anxiety all day can affect their height growth. The study found that girls who were stressed and anxious were on average about 5 cm shorter than girls who felt happy, and their final height was generally no more than 1.57 meters.
Since these girls with tension and anxiety are not born short, psychologists speculate that the emotions are likely to inhibit the normal secretion of growth hormones. What is more puzzling is that the study also found that nervousness does not cause short stature in boys. This is likely related to the different physiological responses of male and female children to stress.
The study also found that two types of stress and anxiety are directly related to physical growth. One is called “separation anxiety”, which means that such girls are worried about being separated from their parents and always stay at home with them or pretend to be sick instead of going to school; some show that they refuse to sleep in separate beds or in different rooms from their parents. Such children generally show a timid temperament, lack of self-confidence, fear that other children will not like her, constantly worry that they do not do things as well as other children and other unhealthy psychological phenomena. According to statistics, at least 5% of girls in the United States have a nervous and anxious psychological disorder that affects their physical growth.
When parents find that their child has a tendency to be nervous and anxious, they should seek the help of a psychologist to analyze and find the cause of the nervousness and anxiety. For example, the child’s relationship with parents is strained, the family is poor, the child looks ugly, and the child has poor academic performance at school. Any cause of tension and anxiety can be treated by psychological intervention to promote height growth.
We suggest that parents should measure their children’s height every two months, and if they find that their children’s growth rate is too slow, they need to see a doctor in time. Generally speaking, if an infant (under 3 years old) grows less than 7 cm per year, a child (3 years old to prepubescent) grows less than 4-5 cm per year, and puberty grows less than 5.5-6.5 cm per year, and the parents’ height is normal, parents should take their child to a regular hospital for a checkup. We also want to remind parents that there is no need to be overly concerned about the growth of their children’s height, many parents nag their children every day not to grow taller, this psychological implication will instead put a lot of psychological pressure on the child, leading to mental tension, affecting growth and development.