In the words of Editor in Chief Christine French Cully, “At Highlights, we often talk about childhood as a short, sweet season—a carefree time. But we know that children do worry.” And our survey results proved that, with 79% of kids responding that they worry. Young children, those ages 6 to 8, seem to reside in an idyllic childhood, with no worries. However, that does change as children age. Developmentally, as social awareness comes into play in the tween years, brain activity shows that a child’s social anxiety awakens, so it’s natural that children become more concerned about current events and the world at large.

Among those kids who worry about violence and safety, 35% say they worry about school shootings and school-related gun violence.  Jennifer Miller, M.Ed., author of Confident Parents, Confident Kids, notes that one reason for this increase is the fact that today kids have more access to news than ever before and news gets spread faster. She says that parents can help their children by thinking about their kids’ daily dose of media consumption—both the quantity and the quality. If all your child sees or hears is the same negative news over and over, it can become problematic because young kids especially may not understand that it is the same news cycle being repeated, not another live event.