Science Article

  Merry Christmas! So this is just a homework assignment that I did a little while ago, and I didn't really want to write anything. It's almost 2012! Hopefully the world wont end.        

        Sometimes when I would go to babysit a specific family, the 3 year old would always scream and cry for half an hour until after his mom was gone, and if I made any mention of his mother; he would start up again. This is what you call separation anxiety.

          Scientists have been researching separation anxiety, and have come to find that sometimes the reason for it is a double copy of a gene called GTF2I. They took mice, and made it so they either developed a double copy of the gene, a normal copy of the gene, or make it so they are missing the gene. They separated the baby mice from their mothers, and then listened for the squeak that they make that calls for their mothers (something a kin to a puppy when you take it away from its mother). The mice with a double copy of the gene squeaked twice as much as the ones with a normal copy, and the mouse without the gene squeaked noticeably less. This isn’t the reason for most children’s separation anxiety, but is a big portion of the cause.

          This article struck home for me. Like I said in the introduction of this essay, when I babysit for this one family, the child was always fussy. It is really interesting to find out why he was so attached, and why some other kids I would babysit wouldn’t be. I don’t know if mice are the same as children. I would like it if they would do another experiment on if age affects it, because the kid that I would baby sit got considerately better over time, but still had a little bit of trouble when his mom would leave.

I looked up percentage of separation anxiety in children and got this interesting information: “About 4 percent of children and young adolescents suffer from separation anxiety disorder (DSM-IV). Among those who seek treatment, separation anxiety disorder is equally distributed between boys and girls. In survey samples, the disorder is more common in girls (DSM-IV). The disorder may be over diagnosed in children and teenagers who live in dangerous neighborhoods and have reasonable fears of leaving home.” (http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/mentalhealth/chapter3/sec6.html). Even though it may not be the biggest concern out there right now, I still think it is good that they are looking in on it.

          I don’t think that there is a cure, or that it is even a problem. So if you have a kid with separation anxiety, just let them know you love them, and hopefully you’ll get through it!