You are your kid's hero: How parents help kids to make sense of a confusing and scary world

We love to talk about how kid-friendly our society has become and how this generation of kids lacks for nothing. But it's one thing to design kid-friendly playgrounds and to talk about how much we value children: it's quite another thing to create a world in which kids feel welcome and secure. And if a brand new study coming out of Australia is any indication, we've got a long way to go.

Earlier this year, researchers from the Australian Childhood Foundation and the National Research Centre for the Prevention of Child Abuse at Monash University conducted an online study involving 600 Australian children and youth between the ages of 10 and 14. They wanted to find out about the biggest worries and concerns facing preteens and young teens. They reached a couple of key conclusions:

Kids don't feel valued by adults. Roughly 50 per cent of kids report feeling unwelcome in public places such as coffee shops and stores. What's more, 36 per cent feel that adults don't care what they have to say.

Kids spend a lot of time worrying about how they fit into the world. They worrying about fitting in with friends (54 per cent) and dealing with bullies (52 per cent). They feel pressured to buy things they don't really need (88 per cent) and to look a certain way. (35 per cent are concerned about being overweight and 16 per cent are worried about being underweight.)

Kids are deeply concerned about the future. They worry about water shortages (over 50 per cent), climate change (44 per cent), air and water pollution (43 per cent), terrorism (36 per cent), having to fight in a war (31 per cent), and the world coming to an end before they have a chance to grow up (25 per cent).

Parents have a crucial role to play in helping kids to make sense of the confusing and conflicting feedback they receive from the outside world. As the researchers note: "Parents are children's everyday heroes because they love, care and support them. In essence, positive relationships with family offer children an important buffer to their fears and concerns. They enable children to interpret meaning from difficult experiences and they promote optimism, happiness and strength in children."

Are your children worried about the state of the world? If so, how do you discuss those fears as a family?