Understand the Kinds of Influences That Affect Children and Young People’s Environment

• Understand the kinds of influences that affect children and young people’s environment.
• Describe, with examples the kinds of influences that affect children and young people’s development including:

Background

Pupils may come from a wide range of different family environments, cultures and circumstances for example their parents may come from a foreign country and have different religious beliefs. This may affect the child as they will be taught something different at home and school may be teaching something else and this may confuse the child. There may also be a language issue as the child may speak the parent’s language at home and may have problems speaking English at school.

Health

If pupils suffer from poor health or physical disability, it may restrict their development opportunities. Health can be affected by low income and a range of socio-economic factors such as access to good-quality health services and shops selling good-quality food at affordable prices.

The child’s emotional development will also be impacted depending on the illness of their needs. It is important that adults in schools are aware of these situations and circumstances so that they can support them by ensuring that they are included as far as possible.

Environment

Families who feel confident about their future income and finances can choose their lifestyle. They can also choose where they would like to live. Families in the higher social classes tend to live in more expensive housing areas with good facilities for travel and education. Families with lower incomes tend to live in more densely occupied housing areas. Families on lower incomes are often forced to rent rather than buy their homes.

Different social class groups often live in different neighbor hoods, but there can be disadvantages to living in poor-quality or high-density housing. These can include noise, pollution, overcrowding, poor access to hops and other facilities, and stress from petty crime. When people are on a low income, household maintenance can become a problem.

Poorly maintained housing can create health hazards. Low income and poor housing are a source of stress to many people. In general, people with money appear to have fewer problems compared with people who live in low-income areas. Living in the suburbs or in the country may also cause less stress than living ‘in town’.