Psychological Impact of Children Experiencing Stunting

Stunting is a child's length or height that is less than compared to the group of children his age. In short stunting refers to growth or height

Stunting and its Impact on Children
There are three things that must be considered in preventing stunting, namely improving diet, parenting, and improving sanitation and access to clean water. These three things are related to the daily pattern of living in a family, which is also closely related to the inhibition of children's development. In several studies on stunting and its effects on psychological conditions, what sticks out the most is that children with stunting have a risk of less than optimal cognitive, motor, and verbal development. This sub-optimal development has an impact on learning capacity and learning achievement in schools is less than optimal.

Children's learning capacity that is not optimal and decreased performance during school, can cause productivity and performance as an adult child is also not optimal. This is what drives the Indonesian government to be very concerned about stunting. The President of the Republic of Indonesia stated that stunting prevention must be a priority for the advancement of Indonesia's human resources

Psychology of Children with Stunting
In addition, in the case of stunting, the risk of psychosocial dysfunction is higher than in normal conditions. Children are detected to have low self-confidence and are at risk of causing family problems, especially when they are teenagers. Children with stunting are also easily anxious and prone to depression. After growing up, children can be at risk of having low cognitive abilities, which are 18.333 times less developed than adolescents who are not stunted. From other sources, children with stunting in the early two years of their life tend to be at risk of experiencing problems in psychological conditions as teenagers when compared to normal children. Among them are the tendency to be anxious and prone to depression, low self-esteem, and display hyperactive behaviors that lead to behavior that is contrary to normal conditions. However, with good stimulation of child development, the negative impact of stunting on child development can be minimized. Children with stunting and their impact on further growth and development, can affect the quality of Indonesian human resources to be empowered

competitiveness with other countries. Parents are the key to preventing stunting in Indonesia. For this reason, it is necessary to educate parents in improving parenting patterns, patterns of providing nutritional intake, as well as sanitation and access to clean water, as stated by Moelok.

Children with stunting and their impact on further growth and development, can affect the quality of Indonesia's human resources to be competitive with other countries. Parents are the key to preventing stunting in Indonesia. For this reason, it is necessary to educate parents in improving parenting patterns, patterns of providing nutritional intake, as well as sanitation and access to clean water,