Research Paper on What Is Stress and How Can It Be Managed?

Introduction

Stress is a condition that is brought about by the inert inability of human beings being unable to cope with changes in their environment which affect them in a direct or indirect manner. The majority of stress that is experienced by most people includes events or transitions that cause the change which brings a difficulty to a certain individual. These transitions or events are known as stressors. These stressors may include different things such as lack of finances and bad health or a failing relationship between two people. The ability to cope with the stress of any given type is known as one's resiliency which way different in accordance with the type of stress that is experienced by the affected individual (Kunz, 2013). Resiliency includes first realizing the stressor, the event or transition that is causing stress for the affected individual. By knowing the stressor, one can work towards creating new reaction patterns to the stressors by dealing with the event or transition in one way or another, thereby managing the stress.

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What are the characteristics of parent-to-child violence?

The characteristics of parent-to-child abuse are based on the significant relationship that exists between the two individuals. The parent, who acts as the primary caregiver is responsible for many things including protecting the children in the care. However, different types of stressors may cause the parent to be significantly violent on the child. One of the significant characteristics of this type of violent behavior is the abusive behavior usually passed from one generation to another. Ideally, children are the most significant long-term victims of abuse during their childhood and adolescent years (Kunz, 2013). As such, children are bound to pick up aggressive behavior from their abusers. In perspective of this, parent-to-child abuse or violence is most common in situations where the parent may have experienced some kind of violence from their own parents when they were young. Another significant perspective of parent-to-child violence is that the majority of infant homicides were committed by the mothers and the more than two-thirds of the homicide by the child's fathers.

What are the characteristics of elder abuse?

The characteristics of elder abuse are based upon the nature of the reaction to the younger generation in regard to the increasing needs of the elderly who often find themselves in a vulnerable position of constantly requiring assistance. One of the characteristics of elder abuse is that the abuser is most of the times related to the victim of the abuse. Secondly, the abuse may take different forms which are characterized by the need that has been denied to the elderly. The type of abuse, therefore, might be through negligent action that one is aware of (Kunz, 2013). Thirdly, another significant aspect of elderly abuse is that the elderly cannot take care of themselves or defend themselves. This places them in a further vulnerable position in which they are unable to report the abuse of their caregivers to the individuals who are responsible for the supervision of their care.

How can violence and abuse managed and prevented?

One of the most significant ways of managing violence and abuse is through learning how to protect oneself. Self-protection is used in the reactive situation when one is looking to inflict emotional or physical harm on another individual. In this instances, when the rational conversation is not possible, physical action takes precedence. As such, the physical reaction to violent action at the instance that it takes place provides a significant probability of protecting oneself from harm or injury (Kunz, 2013). As such, there are many ways in which one can protect themselves, these ways range from physical reaction to distancing oneself from the other is consideration of the harm that one tends to inflict upon close approximation with the abuser. Therefore, one can create a safety plan which takes into consideration locations of safety and people that one can contact when in a crisis situation. Another significant way in which one can be able to manage the abuse and violence is through legal assistance, crisis intervention and medical service to treat the injury or harm that has been inflicted upon the victimized individual.

Separation and Divorce

What are the trends in divorce?

Throughout the years, the statistical trends in divorce have increased in the United States. Ideally, divorce in the United States has decreased as per the rate basis. However, people have not taken into consideration the number of marriages and increasing population in the nation in the context of the decreasing divorce rates, as for the past three decades. Another significant statistical trend in divorce is that the children that suffered the consequences of divorce in their family were more likely to grow in a household that is led by their mother than their father (Kunz, 2013). Furthermore, another significant trend is that women who were divorced were more likely to receive public assistance than men who were divorced in the past six months in regard to the date of writing and publishing of the book. The legal trends of divorce of the years include the increasing number of divorces that are granted on financial rather than family or romantic grounds.

What are the three broad divorce risk factors? What are specific risk factors contained within each one?

According to the text, there are three broad divorce risk factors. These divorce risk factors include demographics, lifestyle factors, and societal factors. These divorce risk factors, in their broad domain, can be divided into subdomains in consideration of the common risk factor in place. For instance, the divorce risk factor that is demographic factors can be further divided into other factors which include religion, race, employment status, education level, income level, and ethnicity. The second risk factor for divorce, societal factors, can be further divided into cultural values and societal integration. The third divorce risk factors, lifestyle factors can be further divided into the factors of premarital cohabitation, premarital pregnancy, age at marriage and integrational transition (Kunz, 2013). Each of the sub-domain factors of the main risk factors for divorce provides a different but viable explanation of why some behavior or circumstances may lead to one partner wanting to divorce their other half. As such, people are triggered by different experiences, behaviors, and circumstances to enact their divorce for one or more reasons.

What are the consequences of divorce?

The consequences of divorce vary depending on the individuals that were in the affected family and the resulting need for divorce between the married couple. Literature shows that divorce may have a significant number of consequences which include mental, economic, relationship and other consequences that affect the two partners that were in the broken marriage. Otherwise, there are consequences of divorce that are implicated upon the children that were born out of the marriage of the two now divorced individuals. The consequences of divorce for children in the broken marriage include personal adjustment, the strain on existing interpersonal relationships and the ability to form new ones, development of antisocial behavior, and loss of self-esteem as well as decreased cognitive functioning of the children (Kunz, 2013). The above outcome or rather consequences of divorce focus upon on the negative perspective. However, recent studies have affirmed that there are significant positive outcomes of divorce. These positive outcomes may include financial independence, a peace of mind and better space to focus on self-projected goals and objectives for one's life.

On the one hand, social exchange theorists perceive every form of human behavior as a series of costs and rewards. As such, they do so with divorce which perceived from their perspective can be elaborated from the example of skydiving. In skydiving, the reward is determined as the exhilarating feeling that one experiences as they fly through the air. However, the costs which are deterrent are all the things that could possibly go wrong when one pulls the string for the chute to open. As such, taking divorce into this perspective, it is the exhilaration that one may experience from coming out of a bad marriage. However, the costs of the divorce round up to the significant consequences, especially negative consequences that one is bound to experience when undertaking a divorce (Kunz, 2013). As such, social exchange theorists argue that divorces never consider the significant negative consequences but rather the positive outcomes. As such, social exchange theorists elaborate divorce in the perspective of the generalized set of rewards that one is bound to acquire in undertaking the divorce process.

On the other hand, divorce-stress adjustment theorists perceive divorces as a transition in life that is marked by its stressful nature, but a situation that the whole family must work towards adjusting. These theorists perceive divorces to cause a significant amount of reactions such as anxiety and tension which result from a different number of stressors. The adults are affected by stressors which include financial difficulties, pressures of sole parenting, and conflicts with their previous spouses and the loss of parental custody (Kunz, 2013). On the other hand, the stressors for the children involved in a divorced marriage include the decline in the family income which has a significant effect on the lifestyle that the children experienced. Another significant stressor for the children includes the reduced interaction with one parent which might have a significant psychological effect on the children. However, the divorce-stress adjustment theorists argue that these members of the family affected by divorce need to adjust and cope with the stressors which arise from a divorced union.

Single Parent Families, Remarriage, and Stepfamilies

The historical living arrangements of children included those born into a loving marriage and a robust family system in which the nuclear family was intact. However, as time went by, the structure of the living arrangements of children changed with the significant changes that took place in American families. Americans became more accepting of the idea of marrying, divorcing and remarrying again at a single point in their lives. As such, the historical living arrangements of children in the United States went from a strong, intact nuclear family to the formation of single mother families or stepfamilies (Kunz, 2013). It was during the 1880s that the number of children living in single-mother families increased by 3% per annum. From then, there has been a significant increase in single mother only families which have doubled due to the increasing number of divorces. Furthermore, the number of children living in stepfamilies has also increased over the years.

The factors that impact the remarriage rates in the United States depend on the different formations of the individual's that are involved in the marriage. Once a couple has been divorced, the age and sex have a significant impact on the probability for remarrying for both partners. Ideally, the probability for remarrying is higher for men than for women. In consideration of the factor that is race and ethnicity, white women are the ones who have the...