My major title is, “Child & Youth Studies: School, Family & Self.” As I stated in the introduction, the three words following the colon are the three pillars that truly balance and make up the construction of my major. What I believe gives my proposed ISM its identity is the three pillars: School, Family, & Self. The basis of these 3 pillars was inspired by a conversation with research librarian, Brandon West. He asked me what I wanted to focus on and I specifically stated that human development was very important to me. We delved further into this and discussed how I learned about family in education and psychology courses as well as school. I’ve learned about them both greatly in my past classes but never put them together. That is when Brandon added self because he knew how much I wanted to focus on a child’s individual development and mental health. Therefore, we determined the main point of my ISM would be in regards to these three pillars we chose: school, family, and self.
Each of these pillars greatly influence one another and contribute to the overall mental health of children and adolescents. If a child begins to struggle in school, their home life and their own psyche will be impacted. The effects will lead to extreme stress which can lead to mental health problems such as depression and anxiety. If a child is facing problems at home, their school life and psyche can be quickly turned upside down in regards to their overall mental health, again causing problems such as depression and anxiety. If a child’s psyche and own depiction of themselves is negative then their school life and home life will again be affected and lead to disruptive and poor mental health situations such as them experiencing depression and anxiety. Children and adolescents experience great everyday stressors as they are developing physically, cognitively, and emotionally. The main factors that aid in the development of these domains include my three pillars. School and family are extremely important contexts for development in youth and any trouble going on in these situations such as bullying or neglect will lead to stressful mindsets and likely the mental health problems I have already brought up, depression and anxiety. School, family, and self are extremely integrated and reliant on one another due to the fact that they all aid in the building blocks of youth. All of these factors influence their development as children and adolescents and their own perspectives on life as they continue to grow.