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Home › Articles › Parenting Strategies › When Your Preteen Sings the Blues

When Your Preteen Sings the Blues

Depression in Your Child

By Virginia Gilbert

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Sixth-grader Blake Clausen experienced such a slump when he left the nurturing world of his small elementary school to begin a much larger junior high. A genial boy who adjusted remarkably well to his parents' divorce, his mother's subsequent remarriage and the birth of his half-sister, Blake found the first few weeks of junior high to be the most stressful time of his life.

"Suddenly, he has to change classrooms, he's expected to keep his notebooks a certain way, and he's passing eighth-graders with beards in the hall," says Blake's mother, Gina, looking a bit overwhelmed herself.

Blake readily admits the school pressures have affected his temperament.

"I'll be really happy one minute, then an hour later, I'll be in the worst mood, like if I forget my homework," he says.

Luckily, Blake's bad moods last no more than an hour. And after several weeks in junior high, he feels he's better able to handle the stress. He attributes part of this newfound ease to his parents' reassurances.

"They told me once I got used to the schoolwork, things would get better. And they did."

Gray-tinted Glasses

Parents should be concerned about their child's depression if it continues for a long period of time and is so pervasive that it colors everything. This is clinical depression, which Dr. Havivi likens to wearing "gray-tinted glasses." He explains that the seriously depressed child feels that "everything is bad, nothing is fun, and no one likes him or her."


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