The Psychological Society launches online specialty radio -Radio Psyche.
Hosting talks, interviews and discussions on a range of topics in Psychology, Mental Health, Counseling and Therapy. Authentic and professional information and guidance to support you and your loved ones with milestones and challenges in life. Listen, learn and discuss. Access any time anywhere through desk/laptop, palmtop or even mobile.
Regional telecast and professional development / continuing education shows will be featuring soon.
Updates and alters will be available soon. For further information, you may write to radio@psychologicalsociety.org
World Mental Health Day was observed for the first time on 10 October 1992. This year, The Psychological Society endorsed the World Mental Health Day and celebrates it along with World Federation for Mental Health. The day is celebrated globally as an opportunity to communicate with the general public about mental health issues.
Mental health is understood as “the successful performance of mental function, resulting in productive activities, fulfilling relationships with other people, and the ability to adapt to change and cope with adversity.” Mental or emotional health generally refers to an individual’s thoughts, feelings and actions, particularly when faced with life’s challenges and stresses. Good mental health isn’t just the absence of mental health problems. Following characteristics are likely to be present in individuals with good mental health:
•A sense of well-being and contentment
•A zest for living – the ability to enjoy life, to laugh and have fun
•Resilience – being able to deal with life’s stresses and bounce back from adversity
•Self-realization – participating in life to the fullest extent possible, through meaningful activities and positive relationships
•Flexibility – the ability to change, grow, and experience a range of feelings, as life’s circumstances change
•A sense of balance in one’s life – between solitude and sociability, work and play, sleep and wakefulness, rest and exercise, etc.
•A sense of well-roundedness – with attention to mind, body, spirit, creativity, intellectual development, health, etc.
•The ability to care for oneself and for others
•Self-confidence and good self-esteem
Join hands with The Psychological Society in celebrating World Mental Health Day across the Globe.
See the resources Here!Or write to us at campaign@psychologicalsociety.org for complete assistance, wherever you are.
The failure to provide mental health care for people with chronic illnesses is a major gap in health services. People with long term physical illnesses require comprehensive health services that address complex medi-cal issues. Mental health disorders are often associated with chronic illness, and should be addressed as part of general care. Patients often have mental health problems that are connected with their illness, or have mental illnesses that increase their vulnerability to chronic physical conditions.
Each year the World Federation for Mental Health selects a topic of current concern for its annual public education campaign which centers on World Mental Health Day (10 October). This year the chosen theme is ―Mental Health and Chronic Illness: The Need for Continued and Integrated Care.
There are established links between depression and chronic conditions like heart disease, diabetes, cancer and respiratory illnesses. While it is not inevitable for people to have physical and mental illnesses together, it happens often enough that physicians should routinely consider the possibility. Research shows that people with serious physical illnesses are at higher risk of experiencing depression, while those with depres-sive symptoms are at higher risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and respiratory illness. In addi-tion, untreated depression can contribute to adverse outcomes when patients are unable to follow direc-tions for care. In diabetes, for example, untreated depression can cause a higher risk for serious complica-tions.
People with chronic long term physical illnesses face demanding programs of treatment and ongoing dis-ease management. The debilitating nature of depression can further diminish their quality of life. Failure to view physical and mental health as an integrated area of care is a common treatment gap, even although mental illnesses can be successfully treated.
The World Health Organization and the World Association of Family Doctors have pointed out that with training and appropriate planning, primary care providers can address physical and mental problems to-gether as now happens in the health systems of several countries. Patients can be referred to specialty mental health services when needed. The World Federation for Mental Health is using its annual public education campaign this year to encourage health professionals, patients and their families to advocate for integrated care of physical and mental health. Government health departments and local health authorities should pay close attention to the importance of this issue in planning for services.
Join Tthe Psychological Society’s campaign for mental health! Write to campaign@psychologicalsociety.org for assistance.
The World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH) established World Mental Health Day in 1992, and coordinates and promotes its annual commemoration on October 10. It is the only annual global awareness campaign to focus attention on specific aspects of mental health and mental disorders, and is now celebrated in over 100 countries through public awareness and education events, proclamation signings, advocacy campaigns, and other public events organized by governmental agencies and non-governmental mental health organizations.
The theme for the World Mental Health Day 2010 is MENTAL HEALTH AND CHRONIC PHYSICAL ILLNESSES: THE NEED FOR CONTINUED AND INTEGRATED CARE which has been announced by the World Federation for Mental Health. Mental health professionals from across the world are looking forward to invlove in another significant campaign. An elaboration on the theme will be carried out soon.
The 2009 World Mental Health Day global awareness campaign focused on “Mental Health in Primary Care: Enhancing Treatment and Promoting Mental Health.” The theme addressed the continuing need to “make mental health issues a global priority”, and stressed the all too-often neglected fact that mental health is an integral element of every individual’s overall health and well-being. Mental illnesses do not choose their victims; they occur in all cultures and at all stages of the life span. Mental illnesses have a major impact on the physical health of people living with them. The campaign theme was intended to draw worldwide attention to the growing body of information and knowledge focusing on the integration of mental health in primary healthcare, and to provide this information to grassroots patient/consumer, family member/caregiver, and advocacy and educational mental health associations around the world. This was a significant trend in shifting mental health diagnosis, treatment and care from the traditional separate but unequal mental health services delivery system into mainstream healthcare.
The engagement of the “end users” of mental health services, their families who often carry much of the responsibility for helping people living with mental illnesses to manage in the community, and the advocates who attempt to influence mental health policies, was critical during that time of change, reform, and limited resources. Informing and equipping the grassroots mental health community to make certain that mental health and mental illnesses were considered integral to overall good health and appropriate services for those who require them were the principal goals for the 2009 World Mental Health Day campaign. One of the primary advocacy concerns that must be addressed is the danger that adequate and effective diagnosis,treatment and recovery of people living with mental illnesses will not receive a parity level priority within the general and primary healthcare system. It is the job of the global mental health advocacy movement to assure that this is not an unintended result of healthcare reform.
Those who intersted to be part of observing World Mental Health Day/Week may write to campaign@psychologicalsociety.org. The Society will extend you guidance and support in organizing events at your respective workplaces/domains and endorse the campaign which can be anything from putting a poster on the notice board to a public rally to writing competition and can be among academicians, practitioners, students, communities and even kids.
RMIT International University, Vietnam will host a four day Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) Training, 25th-28th January 2011. This training has been endorsed by the Australian Psychological Society and attracts 24 hours of specialist Continuing Professional Development.
Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) is a time-limited and semi-structured psychotherapy focusing on the underlying nterpersonal issues in mood disorder. IPT has repeatedly demonstrated its efficacy as a treatment of choice for mood disorder in research trials. Demand for this therapy has rapidly increased since its inclusion in the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) UK guidelines yet training provision is scarce. This course will cover the knowledge and research base of IPT with an introduction to some basic clinical skills and will focus on the clinical practice of IPT. Completion of the four days provides a rigorous introduction, the first step to becoming an IPT practitioner. The presenter offering this course is an experienced clinical psychologist involved in IPT practice, training and supervision for over a decade.
The trainer, Professor Alessandra Lemma is a Consultant Clinical & Counselling Psychologist, IPT trainer and supervisor &trust wide head of Psychology for the Tavistock Clinic,Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust London. She is an honourary professor of psychological therapies at the University of Essex, England, an honourary senior lecturer at University College London, a senior member of the British Association of Psychotherapist and a member of the British Psychoanalytic Society.
Applicants should have a mental health qualification e.g. psychology, counselling, psychiatry, nursing, social work, and should have experience of working therapeutically with people with mental health difficulties.
The trainer, Professor Alessandra Lemma is a Consultant Clinical & Counselling Psychologist, IPT trainer and supervisor &
trust wide head of Psychology for the Tavistock Clinic,Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust London. She is an honourary professor of psychological therapies at the University of Essex, England, an honourary senior lecturer at University College London, a senior member of the British Association of Psychotherapist and a member of the British Psychoanalytic Society.
Professor Lemma holds a number of editorial posts, is an author and has many international publications in the field of psychotherapy.
RMIT Vietnam is in Ho Chi Minh City, a thriving and energetic city, well positioned for exploration of South East Asia. For participation, you may write to steven.halford@rmit.edu.vn.
The incidents of divorce are increasing nowadays and several divorcing families include children and adolescents also. Besides, most of the divorced parents are alone who are rearing children and such parents face special problems in upbringing of children. However, always divorce per se cannot be blamed for causing emotional distress to children and adolescents, rather, the precedence of long-term pre-divorce discord and familial security is responsible for the same. The divorce has long-term devastating individual, familial, social, economic and emotional impacts in one’s life. Regardless of the causes of divorce, this article is focused on its impact and possible psychological treatment in relation to children and adolescents. The consequences of divorce differentially affect children and adolescents as per their age and gender. For the purpose of this article, computerized Medline and other relevant texts have been searched as well as relevant clinical experience has also been highlighted in the context of divorce, its impact on children and adolescents, and relevant intervention. At last, conclusion and further suggestions on prospective research have been incorporated.
Psychological consideration in divorce and its impact:
In fact, the broken marriage represents a major physical, social, economical and emotional loss in the lives of all family members including kids. According to the family systems’ perspective of divorce, the concept of ‘self’ is not differentiated (rather it is diffused) in the marital context and the loss of that self as a result of divorce is a significant source of potential dysfunction in adult family members during and after the divorce. Thus, the lower level of differentiation of self in family members results in greater probability that the self was defined in a fusional way during the marriage. As a result, when the fused common self is lost through divorce, one or both spouses are likely to experience a significant sense of loss as well as potential dysfunction in family (Haber, 1990). So much so, the children and adolescents are having step-parents and half siblings also after divorce. Often these situations make the family dysfunctional and grim to be adjusted with, through breakdown of relationships mostly resulting into trauma and deviant behaviour (Ghosh, 2004). In the first world countries, women consider themselves responsible for their children’s care regardless of marital status, whereas men tend to disengage from their offspring once a marriage is dissolved. Although children whose parents separate suffer disadvantages compared to those whose parents remain together, but the magnitude, source of these difference in disadvantage and the profile of vulnerable children to social and emotional problems differ across families. When the father moves out, household income declines by an average of 37% and child support is too low to reduce the hardships of living in a single-mother family. The similar condition of family is bound to leave more serious impact on children, especially on girl children, in the second or third world countries where often the male people are breadwinners of their families for all kinds of tangible support. Even when responsibility for children is shared with grandparents or the state (through welfare), the disparities between one- and two-parent households persist. The conflict between parents, loss of daily contact with one parent, and disruption of routines and place of residence associated with divorce jeopardize children’s emotional security and deprive them of essential socialization experiences (Seltzer, 1994).
Serious psychological consequences:
The divorce constitutes disruption in the lives of family members posing a very specific hazard to the adolescents giving rise to process of emancipation from primary love objects (Schwartzberg, 1992). Mostly, they experience their parents’ post divorce marriage as stressful, long-lasting developmental delays or disruptions. Although some children adapt well in the early stages of post divorce familial reorganizations, but, show its delayed and adverse effects emerge later in life, especially in adolescence. The long-term effects of divorce and remarriage are more related to the child’s developmental status, sex, and temperament; the qualities of the home and parenting environments (Hetherington, Stanley-Hagan & Anderson, 1989) ; amount and quality of contact with non-custodial parents, the custodial parents’ psychological adjustment and parenting skills, the level of inter-parental conflict that precedes and follows divorce, the degree of economic hardship to which children are exposed, and the number of stressful life events that accompany and follow divorce( Amato, 1994) and to the resources and support systems available to the parents and child. Thus, single-parent and remarried families (after divorce, rather than demise of the spouse) are pathogenic families that disrupt the development and adjustment of children and adolescents (Hetherington, Stanley-Hagan & Anderson, 1989). The family is less warm, supportive, and expressive to intra-familial relations; lacking orientation toward personal growth of male adolescents; and less successfully participates in extra-familial involvement (Kagel et al, 1978), however, divorce has delayed impact on young and adolescent females in forming their own relationship with people which is affected by factors of identification with their mothers, mother-daughter relationship and household organization (Wallerstein & Corbin,1989) . The study on such families also indicates that fathers lose their importance for their children by disappearing from the children’s daily life (Lehmkuhl & Born ,1986). Similarly, those who experienced remarriage of both of their parents, the majority reported that their father’s remarriage was more stressful than their mother’s. When children’s relationships with their fathers deteriorated after divorce, their relationships with their paternal grandparents, stepmother, and stepsiblings became also distant, negative, or nonexistent. Although, some fathers become more involved in family nurturing after divorce, nonetheless, they are more intensely affected by marital disruption, particularly as it involves changes in the relationship to their children (Jacobs, 1982). Richardson and McCabe (2001) reported adolescents’ response to their psychosocial adjustment, their present relationships with their divorced parents, the level of inter-parental conflict experienced during adolescence, and the marital status of their parents during adolescence. The results indicated that High levels of inter-parental conflict were negatively associated with adjustment and current intimacy with parents. A poor relationship with both parents was negatively associated with several domains of psychosocial adjustment, while high intimacy with at least one parent was positively associated with adjustment. At times, distraught school goers don’t express their anxiety in family rather among friends or in schools in the form of fighting, conduct disorders, breaking discipline etc. As a result, their scholastic performance do suffer or they may develop psychosomatic problems e.g., gastro-intestinal disorders, headache, asthma through internalizing their psychological distress. Children who experience parental divorce exhibit more conduct problems, psychological maladjustment, lower academic achievement, more social difficulties, poor physical health (Fabricius & Luecken, 2007) and poorer self-concepts. Similarly, young adults who experienced parental divorce as children, compared with adults brought-up in intact two-parent families, do have poor psychological, interpersonal, and socioeconomic well-being (Amato, 1994). The divorce does not only ‘shatter’ the adolescence rather jeopardizes adjustment in early adulthood as young adults tend to have poor romantic relationship with their partners (Summers et al, 1998). At last, my clinical experience has found that female children and adolescents of divorced parents are especially targeted for sexual abuse, prostitution and other illegal activities.
Interventional considerations:
Therefore, immediate intervention is important for children and adolescents undergoing such an agonizing breakdown of familial relationships because a bright and cheerful future still lies ahead for them despite this traumatic incident. First of all, Parents have to be convinced that children should not be pulled into such a ‘marital tug-of-war’, rather, they should be loved and cared by the both parents despite a side or favour being taken by them from time to time toward one parent. This is particularly important for adolescents as they start preparing for prospective life during this developmental period. Secondly, parents are required to avoid bitterness to achieve an amiable divorce; hope and happiness thereafter. Because bitterness in parental behaviour towards their wards conveys a kind of message about their own parents which could be detrimental for remaining period of life, especially in the case of opposite sex children or adolescents (which happens in marital skew). For the purpose, the divorced parents could be counseled to look afresh at their marriage focusing on understanding what brought them together, kept them together and led to separation. Although, this isn’t an easy task, however, working on this line of staying positive can help them in realizing that both are equally accountable for falling in and failure of marital love and affection, concluding shared blame. Thus it could be the real outset favouring the children’s future when they begin feeling angry at their spouse, and repenting on and blaming him- or herself for own contribution in divorce or separation. This course of benign action could be helpful in bringing the couple together once again, at least for the sake of their children (Ghosh, 2004); opting for consulting a clinician and making family intervention programme successful.
In relation to dealing with the children and adolescents, they must be informed about divorcing situations and participate in all sort of relevant decision-makings. Study supports that child as young as four can grasp reality (Shetty, 2004). They should be abreast with the facts of the situation excluding parents’ burdensome emotional feelings. Although a sheer lie seems to be kind but it ephemerally raise a child’s hope that parents my join together, and it would be almost impossible for the child to trust parents in long run after discovering the truth. The hiding of factual information can confuse and terrify children by shaking their social and emotional protection. Furthermore, sometimes, children believe that they have been behind their parental separation by misconstruing the situation, and take responsibility for bringing parents back together in life by giving cost of their own and facilitating risk to psychological disorders. Therefore, it is highly important to communicate that what is happening in divorcing situation, whether children are involved in marital separation and what could happen with them.
How to communicate about divorce to children and adolescents:
It is better to convey the truth to the children and adolescents about divorcing parents. Otherwise, voluntary attempt of accompanying parent to prejudice the children in his or her favour could be harmful. The accompanying parent should not communicate scrupulously an ideal picture of the ‘separated(non-custodial)’ parent to his or her children as it may leave them emotionally confused, doubtful and filled with guilt provided their ‘separated’ parent is negligent and unconcerned. It should not be forgotten that often children better know about their parents’ personality that parents realize, however, they may have difficulty in putting the same into words. Therefore, it is much good to inform the children in simple words including both desirable and undesirable personality features.
How to impart information of divorce and its impact may differ among children of different age-groups. Parents may think that infants are not affected by the disharmonious relationship or divorce of parents; however, they may feel as early as four months of age that something is going wrong by finding alteration in daily routine (e.g., different time for feeding, massage, different place for sleeping etc) due to marital separation. In such situation, it could be advisable to maintain the same time for sleeping, feeding, and other activities. Otherwise, the situation could be uncomfortable for kids that couldn’t be communicated through crying and their weeping spells can be misconstrued. They can easily surmise even a slight change in emotional mood of parents as a reflection of parental feelings toward themselves and act accordingly. This can wear away their sense of love, affection and security. Therefore, it is important to be affectionate with them. In the same way, parents can understand the behaviour of little young children. The toddlers’ inability to proper verbalization may give wrong indication that kids are not understanding parental conflicts and the same can be expressed in tantrums, biting, hitting or even shouting as the adverse situation has changed their daily time table. Such aggressive acts can be understood as the child is unable to see parents daily and the same act can be redirected by encouraging the child to express anger through a specific activity, e.g., making fist. Another alternative is permitting the kid for frequent visits with the non-custodial parent. The pre-school children always need reassurance as they fairly understand what is going wrong against of them. As their understanding is still unsophisticated, after losing non-custodial parent and attributing the reason to themselves they may think that the custodial parent will also leave them alone one day. Such kind of feeling of anxiety and lack of confidence could be seen in their play activities also. The school children have comparatively better understanding of marital break-up and could be openly repenting and sad about such troublesome incident and resulted change in life. At times they may be openly angry with their custodial parent. The custodial parent should not comment negatively on the non-custodial parent to win children’s favour in such difficult moments, rather they should be neutral and encourage their children to express their pent-up feelings while setting a limit at the same time for them to behave with (Ghosh, 2004).
During communicating to children and adolescents parents could be advised not to be angry and the same could be saved for friends and adults family members. The children are required to know only about the factual information of divorce and new living arrangements so that they would have only their own feelings to cope with, and not the parents’ agony and disappointment. Parents regardless of their interest should facilitate their children to express their feelings on divorce. These feelings are comparatively easy to handle for adolescents when they talk about. They should be allowed to talk freely about ‘distant or visiting’ parent (usually about father) in post-divorce situation because the child feels rejected and dejected in the absence of father. However, it may take a long time to deal with troublesome emotional feelings and situations if they have to bury their feelings or to pretend not to bother about. I would like to mention my successful clinical experience of a relevant case of multiple psychological disorders in which divorce was also likely. I have found that establishment or re-establishment of discipline for children could be supporting for them as they feel secured while being given limits. In fact, children require rules in family for controlled and focused development. This not only helps them in easy going in life as well as provides a sense of security as they know that what the parental expectations from them are. In addition, the following useful points could be incorporated in psychological intervention:
•Parents have to re-think and evaluate that end of marriage is not the end of life. They are likely to change and their need for different things at different point of time. They must enjoy their good memories of togetherness.
This is also advisable that better to remain in the former house if financially possible. Thus, the children will not have a new group of friends and neighbours to be adjusted with, in addition to changes in the family life caused by the divorce.
Despite keeping the child in nursery school, the parent (usually mother) should often ask the child about what happens in the school, whether he or she likes the nursery as well as other children get along there. It helps in understanding adjustment of the child in new ambience. During adolescence when the child reaches school-age, it is better to keep a housekeeper throughout the adolescence of the child for continuous supervision in absence of mother. It is not good for adolescent child and their friends of both sexes to be in the home for longer period without any adult around.
They can restore their certitude by learning novelties; revisiting, incorporating and fulfilling old hobbies and previous abilities and talents.
It must be inculcated that older children and adolescents are comparatively more capable to adapt and recuperate faster if parents are caring them taking sides. In addition to parents, presence and availability of another close or amicable adult in the family to whom a child can talk could be supportive who can provide opportunity to children and adolescents to better express their emotions rather than undermining their affective feelings. Intimacy with mother and with father was found to be the most important predictors of psychosocial adjustment.
Renovating friendship for parents and their wards as well could be immensely useful. Parents’ single and divorced friends could show them that still there is life outside the divorce or separation. Studies evidenced that support of friends, especially age mates, is highly relevant in predicting children’s adjustment to stress and psycho-social problems (Lustig et el, 1992).
It’s better to find out supportive and solicitous people in one’s surrounding who can listen and back up rather than pulling. Wolchik et el (1989) examined the direct and stress-buffering effects of support from family adults, non-family adults, family children, and non-family children on the adjustment of 104 children of divorce. For children’s reports of adjustment, significant stress-buffering (i.e., Stress x Support) interactions for support from family adults and support from non-family adults occurred. The lower the level of social support, the stronger the positive relation between stress and adjustment problems. In addition, at high levels of stress, children with high support from non-family and family adults reported fewer adjustment problems than did children with low support. However, at the lowest level of stress, children with high support from non-family adults were significantly more poorly adjusted than were children with low support. For parental reports of children’s adjustment, support from family adults was marginally positively related to adjustment whereas support from non-family adults was inversely related to adjustment.
Role of family therapy in divorce families: Although, the reality of post-divorce situation, even after legal separation, is often clouded by the emotional conflicts, nonetheless, family therapy with the whole family after a divorce can provide a unique opportunity for intervention and facilitating life. Goldman and Coane (1977) developed a four-part model for intervention for divorcing families showing a case report. The first task is to redefine the family as existentially including all members. Next, generational boundaries are firmed in order to reduce the parentification process, often intensified by the parent’s physical absence. Third, the family needs to have a replay of the history of the marriage to correct developmental distortions and offer a change to mourn the loss of the intact family. Finally, the therapists attempt to facilitate an emotional divorce. Bauers (1992) presented a ‘multi-generational approach’ to family therapy with divorce families. Parents and children of such families are faced–with special problems during the phases of ambivalence, divorce and post-divorce. Their problems require varying focal points during therapeutic treatment. It focuses on arriving at a decision, finding constructive solutions for practical and emotional problems caused by the divorce (”psychic divorce” and parental cooperation concerning custody and education of the children) as well as supporting individuation and re-orientations. The main aim of therapeutic treatment is to alter the underlying pathogenic patterns of relationships and conflict-solving in order to prevent its repetition in a new partnership or in the next generation. However, family therapy with divorce families is complicated to a high degree by aggressiveness, destructivity and resistance against working on central conflicts which serve to avoid feelings of anxiety, shame, guilt, anger and mourning. Another variant form of family therapy has been provided by Kaplan (1977) named ‘structural family therapy techniques’ for treating families with a parental divorce in which a child was symptomatic. The family configurations considered are: mother, child, and maternal grandparents; overprotective mother and child; helpless and mildly neglectful mother; father; new family formation; and couples who divorce and marry new spouses. Lebow and Rekart (2007) described an integrative family therapy approach targeted toward such families. Aspects of this treatment include negotiating a clear therapy contract, creating a multiparty alliance with all parties, assessing through the lens of specific understandings about these cases, incorporating multiple therapy session formats, holding both systemic and individual focused perspectives, incorporating a solution-oriented focus, and drawing upon a wide range of intervention techniques. The treatment aims to create a good-enough post-divorce climate in which a new family structure can be constituted in which parents maintain distance from one another, and conflict and triangulation can be minimized.
Upshot
This review implies that repercussions of divorce on children and adolescents are diverse and devastating for which psychological intervention is very significant in treating its aftermath and preventing impending psycho-social problems. However, some aspects have not been considered in relation to effects of divorce on toddlers, adolescents and effective psychological intervention in relevant researches so far, at least within the range of this article. Firstly, most of the studies are focused on divorce and its impact on children, ignoring or undermining its impact on the adolescents; nonetheless, it has vast and differential psycho-social and emotional impact and the same interventional technique may not be useful on these two age groups. Secondly, studies are required on whether marital separation has differential effect on children and adolescent of different familial structures, e. g., nuclear and joint or extended families. In addition, gender, socio-economic status, religion and type of marriage in general (e.g., arrange and court or love marriage) may affect these consequences because the type of marriage, its provision and practice in different religions in country like India have differential psycho-social consequences on individual and family as well. Thirdly, is the consequence of divorce and demise of parent same, because children lose parents in both of the tragedies. If such impacts are not similar, the interventional technique must differ from each other. Fourthly, cross-cultural studies on impact of divorce on children and adolescents of the eastern and western families, rural and urban societies are advisable to be conducted as family dynamics and rearing practices are variable across these societies.
In the similar vein, most of the interventional strategies mentioned above are either a kind of supportive or crisis intervention, and applicable only in the normal cases of divorce or marital separation. It has to be proved if the crisis intervention works on children and adolescents with same effectiveness? In addition, is cognitve-behavioural intervention relevant and equally effective on children and adolescents as well as in divorcing situation or demise of the parent as both lead to bereavement for the wards. Whether brief or long-term intervention is comparatively more effective, is another question to be answered through relevant therapeutic researches as the long-term psychological treatment may not be affordable or unethically thrust on families with poor socio-economic status? Furthermore, what could be the mode of psychological intervention in case of medical, psychological and co-morbidity with the marital partner and the differential impact of divorce on the parent and children of both genders; parents and children with sensory and physical impairment; and children with different level of cognitive impairment? Lastly, it could also be advantageous to know whether divorce affect children as per their birth order in the family. Answer to these salient points could be tremendously helpful in comprehensive understanding of impact of divorce on children and adolescents as well as selecting mode of psychological intervention accordingly.
The author is an Assistant Professor in Clinical Psychology, Department of Psychology, Unversity of Gondar, Ethiopia. He can be reached at anandprakash72@yahoo.com.
The strong emotions and persona developed to an individual has its basement founded in his or her childhood. So, the emotions of children need to be considered, cared, and properly channelized with mindfulness, sensing clearly what’s happening in their mind.
Even infants often develop fears and phobias. These usually happen in particular situations, such as going to school or settling down at night, and can result from the fear of separation from parents or familiar adults. Sometimes, the anxieties are set off by particular things such as dogs, spiders or snakes. Fears like this are very common in early childhood, but with some encouragement and support, most children learn to overcome their anxiety due to fear or phobia. “The darkness test can be designed to assess how long children could stand being in the dark alone.” (p.38). (Janet hall). The utility of darkness test is discussed briefly to train the ways to counteract the children fear. Some children feel anxious most of the time for no apparent reason. It may be part of their temperament, or it may be part of a pattern of behavior that is shared with other members of the family. If the anxiety becomes very severe, it can interfere with the child’s ability to go to school, to concentrate and learn, and to be confident with others.
Refusing to go to school can also be caused by anxiety. However, worries about going to school can be caused by a number of things. It is always worth trying to find out what could be causing the problem. Anxiety about separation from their parents is common in children transferring to secondary school. Fear of bullying, or problems with friendships, are also common. Trouble with school work or with teachers may also play a part. The way the parent or teacher discipline their child also plays vital part. “Whether the type of discipline is authoritarian or permissive or democratic will have its effect on their behavior, attitude and even on their entire personality.” (p.134). (Elizabeth B. Hurlock). The ways to discipline the children without building their inner anxiety need to be considered more consciously.
Human mind also follows homeostasis principle like our biological machine. Whenever the mind is prone to anxiety or stress, it tries to balance it by functioning in direct opposite ways. For example, if a child feels any shocking fear, by this principle, it’ll be suppressed naturally, which is unhealthy. “Children emotions cannot be balanced itself natural way but they should to be trained to handle it progressively”. (p.162) (Zahourek, R.P.). Similarly, physical ailments which cause anxiety to children are to be approached in more ideal manner, making sure that should not degrade their personality and instead it should be motivated to give positive personality to children. “Build the affected children with courage to challenge their ailment by engaging their mind in all possible play therapies. Training to meditate on their breath in joyful manner will reduce even their physical anxiety rapidly”. (p 54). (Delmonte, M.M.).
To the Core of Trouble
Signs :Children express their fear in various ways, which may be physical, emotional, intellectual and behavioral. If aware and keen observant of these symptoms the ways and means are quite easily possible to handle. Physical Symptoms- sleep disturbances, eating disturbances, bowel and other -are anticipated when the children are in fear. Emotional Symptoms are helplessness, sensitivity, confusion, inability to concentrate, despair, anger, sadness, guilt and the expression of fear itself. Intellectual and Behavioral symptoms are low-self esteem, confusion , inability to concentrate, withdrawal, poor school or academic performance, aggression, being easily startled, avoiding going out-dependence on being close to something, and staying in parents’ bed.
Causes: There are two categories of causes of fear. The environment and the child’s genetic & developmental make-up (i.e. Nurture and the Nature) are the two. Parents should be the built of confidence role model to setup the environment and apply consequences to the child. Whereas the child’s Nature which influences their susceptibility to becoming fearful and maintaining their anxiety. So, if the child gets proper predominant nurture to overcome fear, the fear due to natural cause can be tuned and trained.
Dos and Don’ts: Whoever holds the responsibility as care taker of children should know very clearly what should be done with the children and what should not be done at all. For example, the child can be motivated and approached in a positive way to cope his/her fear. But Forcing, ridiculing, threatening & punishing, ignoring and overprotection must never be done.
How to cope up children anxiety..?
Listen to the child calmly keeping you in their shoes.
Teach the child to find their fear and ventilate by verbalizing. Then teach them positive self-talk to handle their fear, after assessing them with darkness test. It should be done putting the child in his or her own bedroom about two hours before bed-time, saying something like this:
“Go into your bedroom and sit or lie down on the bed. I’m going to turn the light out and you have to stay in the room as long as you can. If you get scared, don’t try to turn on the light; just come out. You can come out any time, but try and be as brave as you can. I’ll be just outside. Don’t call out. If you are scared, just open the door and come out.” (p.38). (Janet hall).
Then allow them to rate their fear by themselves. After darkness test, coach your child in self-talk to cope and overcome fear. First let the child rate his or her fear. When the child senses the fear level, help to counter defence it by making them to say, “I am really well. My Mum is very close by. I’m safe”. This very sense will delay them to stay in darkness for still longer period. Present them with more positive self-talks. When they improve their time of stay in darkness, and thenencourage them with reward. Train them to self-reward the fear scale too. Withstanding darkness will build self confidence to outgrow any anxieties in future life comfortably.
Then and there show and demonstrate your confidence in the safety of your zone and be a model manager of fears.
Make sure that your child feels safe and secure in their environment.
Children are taught to differentiate animals and insects which are harming and non-harming. And healthy ways to handle it and the facts about it need to be taught.
A more common preventive measure is training the child to do exercise regularly, so that their anxiety will be naturally prevented or rooted out. Positive exercises like yogasana and meditation will really balances their mind and give the clear sense of thinking. Yogic exercises give physic-psychic well-being. “By performing yoga postures, human being can control the propensities attached to each plexus, and hence the thoughts which arise in their minds and their behavior are balanced.” (p.158). (Anandamurthi).
When the children are tensed, their emotions should be diluted by training them to relax. And whenever they get tensed they will apply the technique themselves naturally.
Another important part which creates fear is imagining the scary things. This can be dealt by making the child to face their fear in real life.
By creative stories, drawings and rewards in ideal ways their fear can be comfortably rooted out.
General & School-related anxiety
At family, children feel insecure when they hear their parents arguing or fighting. They may hear or see things that they don’t understand or that make them feel unsafe. Discipline that is harsh, inconsistent or overprotective will also create the same undesirable results. This leaves children feeling unsupported, insecure and lacking in confidence.
At school, children who are bullied, lack friends or have trouble with their school work often worry a lot.
Divorce or separation is usually painful for children and they often have divided loyalties. Death or illness of a parent or close relative Losing someone close makes a child feel insecure and upset, especially if they are too young to understand. Illness or death may upset the child’s normal daily life. Traumatic experiences Children who have experienced a household fire or burglary, a road traffic accident or some other frightening or traumatic event might suffer from anxiety afterwards. They might also develop post-traumatic stress disorder.
Do children grow out of it?
Most do, but a few children continue being anxious as adults. However, anxiety can limit a youngster’s activities, which can affect them in the long-term. Not going to school, for example, means missing out on education and on making friends. Loneliness and lack of confidence can be long-term problems. The emotional effects of traumatic experience can also be long-lasting.
Parenting and tutoring for anxious free children!
A lot can be done to stop children being anxious. “A mindful parent who has little knowledge can able to bring any child extra-ordinary personality. Parent and teachers need to get trained in the Mindfulness techniques.” (p.45) (Kabat-Zinn, M., & Kabat-Zinn, J). Parents and teachers can help by remembering that children, like adults, may get anxious about sudden change:
It helps if you can prepare them in advance and explain what is going to happen and why.
There may be books or games that can help children to understand upsetting things, such as serious illness, separation or bereavement.
Children over the age of five often find it helpful to talk about their worries to an understanding adult.
They may need comfort, reassurance and practical help with how to cope.
If your child is showing signs of anxiety, it is important that you can show them that you care and want to understand the reason why:
Think about whether there is something going on in the family that could be causing worry.
Are they picking up on your own worry?
Is something happening at school or with friends?
All families have times when they have to deal with a lot of stress and worry. At times like these, you or your child might need extra help and support from friends, family members or others. If your child is so anxious that they can’t cope with ordinary day-to-day life, more specialist help is needed. Your general practitioner will be able to advise you, and may suggest referral to the local child and adolescent mental health service. The type of specialist help offered here will depend on what is causing the anxiety. Basically, it will involve finding ways of overcoming the worries and building confidence step by step.
If any child is hospitalized for longer period, that will also make them anxious. In such case, compulsory positive inputs and motivation are must. Even the therapy can be given through play making them happy, training them to face the challenges. “There are always children in hospital who have to be trained through play. Games make it easier for children to make their emotions pleasant and to feel their environment comfortable”. (p.11). (Ivonny Lindquist). “Regular practice of different suitable means of breathing exercise given to children will help them to handle their emotions in balanced manner at all the time.” (p.98). (Jacobson). Children anxiety are peculiar. When it affects their attitudes immediate care must be taken and appropriate approach should be given. It varies with child to child. The root of the problem should be analyzed and dismantled. “Consulting a clinical behavior therapist is required at times for major chronic problems like paralysis, challenging injuries. Any physical challenge of the child can be outgrown from children mind if continuous support and proper approach is given.” (p.118) (Ollendick,T.H., & Cerny, J.A). Other habits like breathing exercise, meditation for older children, if cultivated, then the coping will become a natural tendency. “Breathing balances the physical and mental energy”. (p.16). (Rosenberg. L).
Last but not least, diet which is rich in carbohydrates helps in the secretion of serotonin, a neurotransmitter in the brain, helps to reduce anxiety. An amino acid trptophan containing diet like oats, Milk, bananas, Soya, poultry, cheese, nuts, peanut butter and sesame seeds also plays vital role in reducing anxiety. Making children drink plenty of water at intervals will play effective role in eliminating their stress.
Every child is precious and their psychological health is most important at present. Child mind is not a play ground to play as we like. Whatever the approach given by teachers or parents should be given sensing their real emotion and nature. To sense it ideally, an ideal concern with better involvement is enough for anybody to give good atmosphere to children. Only for the problem that could not be solved, parents/teachers can get specialists advise else none other experts can be matched to parents or teachers.
The author is a practicing school psychologist and counselor. He can be reached at drarulsaravanan@gmail.com
Adolescence is a stage of rapid physical and psychological growth. This is the period of joining high school or collegiate education, planning and deciding about professional career, forthcoming settlement and leading quality life. In these contexts, the adolescents face adjustment-related difficulties, tensions, troubles and trauma which are emotional and psychological in nature requiring immediate intervention, otherwise, likely to be compelling to commit some undesirable acts or giving rise to psychological disorders at extreme level. In Indian sub-continent, boys are more privileged and are emancipated than girls in family and society whose exploitation starts at very puberty. As per the data from media, there is a global problem of females’ social security and particularly adolescent girls are targeted more for molestation or rape or other sort of crime, even by family members or close relatives, in every hour of the day, and, more than eighteen thousand girls are victimized for teenage pregnancy every month in India. The students, especially teenage girls are committing suicide due to stress of examination and its unsuccessful results every year (www.indiatvnews.com). Additionally, as per my clinical experience in India families wherein girls do receive equivalent treatment with their male counterpart results in two types of adverse consequences. If they belong to families with high socio-economic status regardless of gender difference and lead life in mega cities easily targeted for eve-teasing or molestation and other criminal acts. On the contrary, adolescent girls belonging to middle or lower-middle socio-economic status and residing in small towns indirectly forced to realize more obligations to family and accountability to excel in life. However, in both of the conditions, they are trapped by the deadly impact of stress on being failed and opt for lethal measures like suicide, drug addiction, developing psycho-somatic disorders, unhealthy compromise in interpersonal relationships etc. In such condition, adolescent females are prone to face comparatively more psychological emergencies for which suggesting proper intervention is the focus of this write-up. With special emphases on Indian teenage girls, this article aims at providing some guidelines for adolescents, their parents and teachers intervening and preventing such emergencies and promoting psychological well-being of adolescent females because they are more prone to such emergencies due to their psycho-socio-familial environment and ongoing rate of crime and violence against them. For the purpose of this article, computerized Medline and other relevant texts have been searched in the context of adolescent girls and intervention techniques have been reviewed. At last, conclusion and further suggestions on prospective research have been incorporated.
Care for Puberty in girls
This is an indication of outset of biological maturity which comprises physical changes including menarche among girls, changes in body structure, secondary sexual features, emotional changes including heterosexual interest, intellectual development etc (Cobb, 2001). This is the period in which nowadays the rate of incidence of emotional cheating, physical and sexual abuse, delinquency, drug addiction, suicide etc has increased against girls. Our adolescents are neither adults nor children. Neither they are appreciated by elders nor are approached by the younger, and thus they are confused and isolated from family members, and being compelled to seek intellectual and emotional support outside where a little affection, false promise and vested interest of others trap them easily into emotional and social problems.
In fact, the parental figures should take care of this stage of development very seriously as the adolescents do need our empathic support and compassion for their emotional maturity, practical life skills and nourishing self- esteem. They are not advised to keep distance from adolescents rather every matter should be given importance with proper appreciation to the respective child. Such children can be prepared beforehand for puberty so that upcoming physical and emotional changes could not appear as shock for them. These adolescent girls could be made open with family members, especially with mothers, regardless of age-difference through this way and they would not feel uneasy while discussing important matters. Since adolescents are very sensitive, therefore, frequent jokes, tease and mockery may harm them rather than providing entertainment and morale –boosting. They need personal space, emotional closure, and intellectual support in sensitive and crucial matters, through one-to-one relationship in most of the situations. For example, it may be frightening for her when a girl has first menstruation with some drops of blood, inducing feeling that she has damaged herself somehow through inspecting and exploring genitals. Here, role of mother has been emphasized and suggested that the mother should describe the changes beforehand which she may expect in puberty, e.g., breast enlargement, pubic hair, menarche etc as a part of normal and healthy developmental process into a beautiful women emphasizing the girl’s eventual beauty rather than initial discomfort an inconvenience. In addition, she should make sure that the teenage girl is not teased by her brothers and sisters about these natural bodily changes because the girl is already anxious about these changes without having the banter of her siblings in addition to these problems. Furthermore, the mother and other same sex siblings should investigate, clarify and support if their ward has been masturbating and feeling ashamed and frightened (Chapman, 1974).
The parents’ and age mates’ patient listening, sharing experience, doubts and confusions across the issues and giving time, space for adjustment provide a sense of all-round security and healthy guidance facilitating prosper life and quality living(Parenting, April, 2003). Parents are required to understand that adolescence is the stage when the female children need to experience the world on their own and express desire accordingly similar to their male counterpart. Neither they want nor do they require their parents to interfere in each and every decision, i.e., a kind of ‘spoon feeding’ for life preparation. Parents must realize that this is the high time to let them spread their wings and this is all about life they have been preparing them for privileges. Therefore, it is important to be democratic rather than autocratic and help them in making preparation for transition from the parental discipline to self-discipline. It paves the way of self-confidence and effective decision-making. For such accomplishment, parents are required to try to recognize each successful effort of their children and support with reassurance at prospective opportunities. Parents must try to listen, understand and provide support and guidance wherever required. As their ‘would be adult female child’ ventures out experiencing novelty in life, they still needs her parents, therefore, be patient with them as they do stumble with their ongoing responsibilities and difficulties. The parents’ role is not required to be amicable or authoritative necessarily, however, with the changing scenario and increasing individuation in global culture, friendship is more useful than exercise authority (Desai, 2004). It helps them to learn how to negotiate and cooperate in setting rules, regulations and solving personal and impersonal problems for prospective healthy, peaceful and successful life, by refraining of their family from breakdowns, being its indomitable or long lasting pivot (Parenting, April, 2004).
Divorce and adolescents’ care
The rate of marital separation or divorce is increasing and unfortunately presently several divorcing families include children and adolescents (Ghosh, 2004). In fact, the broken marriage represents a major physical, social, economical and emotional loss in the lives of all family members including kids. According to the family systems’ perspective of divorce, the concept of ‘self’ is not differentiated (rather it is diffused) in the marital context and the loss of that self as a result of divorce is a significant source of potential dysfunction in adult family members during and after the divorce. Thus, the lower level of differentiation of self in family members results in greater probability that the self was defined in a fusional way during the marriage. As a result, when the fused common self is lost through divorce, one or both spouses are likely to experience a significant sense of loss as well as potential dysfunction in family (Haber, 1990). So much so, the children and adolescents are having step-parents and half siblings also after divorce. Often these situations make the family dysfunctional and grim to be adjusted with, through breakdown of relationships mostly resulting into trauma and deviant behaviour (Ghosh, 2004). In the first world countries, women consider themselves responsible for their children’s care regardless of marital status, whereas men tend to disengage from their offspring once a marriage is dissolved. Although children whose parents separate suffer disadvantages compared to those whose parents remain together, but the magnitude, source of these difference in disadvantage and the profile of vulnerable children to social and emotional problems differ across families. When the father moves out, household income declines by an average of 37% and child support is too low to reduce the hardships of living in a single-mother family. The similar condition of family is bound to leave more serious impact on children, especially on girl children, in the second or third world countries where often the male people are breadwinners of their families for all kinds of tangible support. Even when responsibility for children is shared with grandparents or the state (through welfare), the disparities between one- and two-parent households persist. The conflict between parents, loss of daily contact with one parent, and disruption of routines and place of residence associated with divorce jeopardize children’s emotional security and deprive them of essential socialization experiences (Seltzer, 1994). Children who experience parental divorce exhibit more conduct problems, psychological maladjustment, lower academic achievement, more social difficulties, poor physical health (Fabricius & Luecken, 2007) and poorer self-concepts. Similarly, young adults who experienced parental divorce as children, compared with adults brought-up in intact two-parent families, do have poor psychological, interpersonal, and socioeconomic well-being (Amato, 1994).
The divorce constitutes disruption in the lives of family members posing a very specific hazard to the adolescents giving rise to process of emancipation from primary love objects (Schwartzberg, 1992). Mostly, they experience their parents’ post divorce marriage as stressful, long-lasting developmental delays or disruptions. Although some children adapt well in the early stages of post divorce familial reorganizations, but, show its delayed and adverse effects emerge later in life, especially in adolescence. The long-term effects of divorce and remarriage are more related to the child’s developmental status, sex, and temperament; the qualities of the home and parenting environments (Hetherington, Stanley-Hagan & Anderson, 1989) ; amount and quality of contact with non-custodial parents, the custodial parents’ psychological adjustment and parenting skills, the level of inter-parental conflict that precedes and follows divorce, the degree of economic hardship to which children are exposed, and the number of stressful life events that accompany and follow divorce( Amato, 1994) and to the resources and support systems available to the parents and child. Thus, single-parent and remarried families (after divorce, rather than demise of the spouse) are pathogenic families that disrupt the development and adjustment of children and adolescents (Hetherington, Stanley-Hagan & Anderson, 1989). The family is less warm, supportive, and expressive to intra-familial relations; lacking orientation toward personal growth of male adolescents; and less successfully participates in extra-familial involvement (Kagel et al, 1978), however, divorce has delayed impact on young and adolescent females in forming their own relationship with people which is affected by factors of identification with their mothers, mother-daughter relationship and household organization (Wallerstein & Corbin,1989) . The study on such families also indicates that fathers lose their importance for their children by disappearing from the children’s daily life (Lehmkuhl & Born ,1986). Similarly, those who experienced remarriage of both of their parents, the majority reported that their father’s remarriage was more stressful than their mother’s. When children’s relationships with their fathers deteriorated after divorce, their relationships with their paternal grandparents, stepmother, and stepsiblings became also distant, negative, or nonexistent. Although, some fathers become more involved in family nurturing after divorce, nonetheless, they are more intensely affected by marital disruption, particularly as it involves changes in the relationship to their children (Jacobs, 1982). Richardson and McCabe (2001) reported adolescents’ response to their psychosocial adjustment, their present relationships with their divorced parents, the level of inter-parental conflict experienced during adolescence, and the marital status of their parents during adolescence. The results indicated that High levels of inter-parental conflict were negatively associated with adjustment and current intimacy with parents. A poor relationship with both parents was negatively associated with several domains of psychosocial adjustment, while high intimacy with at least one parent was positively associated with adjustment. At times, distraught school goers don’t express their anxiety in family rather among friends or in schools in the form of fighting, conduct disorders, breaking discipline etc. As a result, their scholastic performance do suffer or they may develop psychosomatic problems e.g., gastro-intestinal disorders, headache, asthma through internalizing their psychological distress. The divorce does not only ‘shatter’ the adolescence rather jeopardizes adjustment in early adulthood as young adults tend to have poor romantic relationship with their partners (Summers et al, 1998).
Therefore, immediate intervention is important for children and adolescents undergoing such an agonizing breakdown of familial relationships because a bright and cheerful future still lies ahead for them despite this traumatic incident. First of all, Parents have to be convinced that children should not be pulled into such a ‘marital tug-of-war’, rather, they should be loved and cared by the both parents despite a side or favour being taken by them from time to time toward one parent. This is particularly important for adolescents as they start preparing for prospective life during this developmental period. Secondly, parents are required to avoid bitterness to achieve an amiable divorce; hope and happiness thereafter. Because bitterness in parental behaviour towards their wards conveys a kind of message about their own parents which could be detrimental for remaining period of life, especially in the case of opposite sex children or adolescents (which happens in marital skew). For the purpose, the divorced parents could be counseled to look afresh at their marriage focusing on understanding what brought them together, kept them together and led to separation. Although, this isn’t an easy task, however, working on this line of staying positive can help them in realizing that both are equally accountable for falling in and failure of marital love and affection, concluding shared blame. Thus it could be the real outset favouring the children’s future when they begin feeling angry at their spouse, and repenting on and blaming him- or herself for own contribution in divorce or separation. This course of benign action could be helpful in bringing the couple together once again, at least for the sake of their children (Ghosh, 2004); opting for consulting a clinician and making family intervention programme successful.
In relation to dealing with the children and adolescents, they must be informed about divorcing situations and participate in all sort of relevant decision-makings. Study supports that child as young as four can grasp reality (Shetty, 2004). They should be abreast with the facts of the situation excluding parents’ burdensome emotional feelings. Although a sheer lie seems to be kind but it ephemerally raise a child’s hope that parents my join together, and it would be almost impossible for the child to trust parents in long run after discovering the truth. The hiding of factual information can confuse and terrify children by shaking their social and emotional protection. Furthermore, sometimes, children believe that they have been behind their parental separation by misconstruing the situation, and take responsibility for bringing parents back together in life by giving cost of their own and facilitating risk to psychological disorders. Therefore, it is highly important to communicate that what is happening in divorcing situation, whether children are involved in marital separation and what could happen with them. During communicating to children and adolescents parents could be advised not to be angry and the same could be saved for friends and adults family members. The children are required to know only about the factual information of divorce and new living arrangements so that they would have only their own feelings to cope with, and not the parents’ agony and disappointment. Parents regardless of their interest should facilitate their children to express their feelings on divorce. These feelings are comparatively easy to handle for adolescents when they talk about. However, it may take a long time to deal with troublesome emotional feelings and situations if they have to bury their feelings or to pretend not to bother about. I would like to mention my successful clinical experience of a relevant case of multiple psychological disorders in which divorce was also likely. I have found that establishment or re-establishment of discipline for children could be supporting for them as they feel secured while being given limits. In fact, children require rules in family for controlled and focused development. This not only helps them in easy going in life as well as provides a sense of security as they know that what the parental expectations from them are. In addition, the following useful points could be incorporated in psychological intervention:
• Parents have to re-think and evaluate that end of marriage is not the end of life. They are likely to change and their need for different things at different point of time. They must enjoy their good memories of togetherness.
• They can restore their certitude by learning novelties; revisiting, incorporating and fulfilling old hobbies and previous abilities and talents.
• It must be inculcated that older children and adolescents are comparatively more capable to adapt and recuperate faster if parents are caring them taking sides. In addition to parents, presence and availability of another close or amicable adult in the family to whom a child can talk could be supportive who can provide opportunity to children and adolescents to better express their emotions rather than undermining their affective feelings. Intimacy with mother and with father was found to be the most important predictors of psychosocial adjustment.
• Renovating friendship for parents and their wards as well could be immensely useful. Parents’ single and divorced friends could show them that still there is life outside the divorce or separation. Studies evidenced that support of friends, especially age mates, is highly relevant in predicting children’s adjustment to stress and psycho-social problems (Lustig et el, 1992).
• It’s better to find out supportive and solicitous people in one’s surrounding who can listen and back up rather than pulling. Wolchik et el (1989) examined the direct and stress-buffering effects of support from family adults, non-family adults, family children, and non-family children on the adjustment of 104 children of divorce. For children’s reports of adjustment, significant stress-buffering (i.e., Stress x Support) interactions for support from family adults and support from non-family adults occurred. The lower the level of social support, the stronger the positive relation between stress and adjustment problems. In addition, at high levels of stress, children with high support from non-family and family adults reported fewer adjustment problems than did children with low support. However, at the lowest level of stress, children with high support from non-family adults were significantly more poorly adjusted than were children with low support. For parental reports of children’s adjustment, support from family adults was marginally positively related to adjustment whereas support from non-family adults was inversely related to adjustment.
Role of family therapy in divorce families: Although, the reality of post-divorce situation, even after legal separation, is often clouded by the emotional conflicts, nonetheless, family therapy with the whole family after a divorce can provide a unique opportunity for intervention and facilitating life. Goldman and Coane (1977) developed a four-part model for intervention for divorcing families showing a case report. The first task is to redefine the family as existentially including all members. Next, generational boundaries are firmed in order to reduce the parentification process, often intensified by the parent’s physical absence. Third, the family needs to have a replay of the history of the marriage to correct developmental distortions and offer a change to mourn the loss of the intact family. Finally, the therapists attempt to facilitate an emotional divorce. Bauers (1992) presented a ‘multi-generational approach’ to family therapy with divorce families. Parents and children of such families are faced–with special problems during the phases of ambivalence, divorce and post-divorce. Their problems require varying focal points during therapeutic treatment. It focuses on arriving at a decision, finding constructive solutions for practical and emotional problems caused by the divorce (”psychic divorce” and parental cooperation concerning custody and education of the children) as well as supporting individuation and re-orientations. The main aim of therapeutic treatment is to alter the underlying pathogenic patterns of relationships and conflict-solving in order to prevent its repetition in a new partnership or in the next generation. However, family therapy with divorce families is complicated to a high degree by aggressiveness, destructivity and resistance against working on central conflicts which serve to avoid feelings of anxiety, shame, guilt, anger and mourning. Another variant form of family therapy has been provided by Kaplan (1977) named ‘structural family therapy techniques’ for treating families with a parental divorce in which a child was symptomatic. The family configurations considered are: mother, child, and maternal grandparents; overprotective mother and child; helpless and mildly neglectful mother; father; new family formation; and couples who divorce and marry new spouses. Lebow and Rekart (2007) described an integrative family therapy approach targeted toward such families. Aspects of this treatment include negotiating a clear therapy contract, creating a multiparty alliance with all parties, assessing through the lens of specific understandings about these cases, incorporating multiple therapy session formats, holding both systemic and individual focused perspectives, incorporating a solution-oriented focus, and drawing upon a wide range of intervention techniques. The treatment aims to create a good-enough post-divorce climate in which a new family structure can be constituted in which parents maintain distance from one another, and conflict and triangulation can be minimized.
Nourishing Self- esteem
It can be defined as individual’s beliefs and feelings related to his or her competence and worth, abilities to make difference, to resist and master challenges, to learn from success and failure as well, and respectful treatment to self and others. The role of self- esteem has been recognized in children’s and adolescents’ development. It is highly affected by the interaction of temperament and environmental factors of developmental stages. Albeit temperament has been found in generating behavioural problems in early and middle childhood as well as continuation of the same in adolescence. However, it has not been observed in producing new behavioural problems in teenage. The temperamental style and adults’ personality and expectations influence child’s unique personality style and behaviour. In other words, a kind of ‘mismatch’ between parents (including parental figures) and children becomes a source of anger and disappointment for both sides and can develop three categories of children: the easy child, the slow-to-warm-up child and the difficult child. The most common outcome of this interaction is low self-esteem. The low self-esteem is as such not expressed directly; rather it can be inferred from their coping strategies which are being used to manage stress and pressure. Unfortunately, these coping mechanisms are unadaptive, ineffective, inappropriate and counterproductive, e.g., quitting, avoiding, cheating, regressing, aggressiveness, denying, rationalizing, impulsivity etc. Parents have to minimize low self-esteem of their ward being empathic, by modifying their own expectations in line with the child’s temperament, and, understanding and appreciating their child’s unique needs and personality style. Such unique qualities of the child not only influence how others respond to them, rather, how the child perceives the others’ responses. Following strategies could be helpful in nurturing the children’s self-esteem:
• Developing responsibility and making a contribution.
• Providing opportunities for making choices, decisions, and solving problems.
• Offering encouragement and positive feedback.
• Establishing self-discipline by creating guidelines and consequences.
• Helping children feel okay about mistakes and failures.
Anger management and developing tolerance
Adolescents are easily irritated as they are easily frustrated by several reasons, e.g., parental scolding, academic failure, lack of compliance from peers etc. Biologically also, their ability to tolerance is poor in this stage. As a result, they can take any unexpected an undesirable step as a measure to he problem, even self- injury or suicide. Therefore, parental figures have to be very careful while dealing with the adolescent child in difficult situations. They are required to work as a model dealing with personal and impersonal problems. They should not expect children to be disciplined, polite and soft-spoken if they often keep bellowing at the servants and spouse in daily life even on trivial issues. Reacting through or neutralizing anger and developing tolerance is an art which cannot be learnt overnight. It has to be nourished and nurtured since the childhood of the ward.
Parental figures can help their children developing control through their own self – control. Children are able to manage their emotional outbursts more easily when find parents controlling their own emotional reactions. A child’s angry outbursts may cause anger in parent making the situation more worse precluding probability of further communication. But when parents are calm, cool, considerate and firm in impasse while finding out its causes and solutions, the same can be assimilated by the child in emotionally loaded situations. In the similar vein, children do think of strategies to help themselves if parents teach the same through examples. Even many decisions can be shared by parents and children as well. Parents can provide choices to several options out of which any one could be acceptable for the child. Such type of help and support toward developing self- control takes time. Parents are required to be patient in teaching skills as children require doing things on their own, and it takes time to follow and to see that children carry out in a responsible way what they have been ‘assigned’ to do. Teaching children to do things by their own gradually introduce them to difficult tasks and provide opportunity to experience success with ongoing new level of difficulty as well as builds and facilitates tolerance for frustration and fosters the development of inner control.
Family members should not forget that tolerance is the capacity to accept differences in others. However, it emerges when a child has the security of healthy relationship, love and care. When a young child feels valued and accepted, it becomes easier to afford the same level of consideration for others. In addition, it is also important to create opportunity for the children where he can gain exposure to different type of people with distinct personality features, and the more they are exposed the more they could be comfortable while noticing less ‘differences’ among people. Ultimately, they will come to realize that external appearance does nothing with type of personality they are and these are inherent qualities what matter more importantly.
Guidelines for Schools’ authorities
A country’s future depends on young generation and its proper emotional and intellectual enrichment. Nonetheless, neither there is sufficient number of qualified school professionals including teachers and counsellors nor a co-ordination between schools and concerned family of the wards found at present. With a significant advancement in learning and teaching exercise at school level, teachers and other authorities of schools are equally responsible for developing healthy personality of children and their scholastic performance preventing and promoting their mental well-being. Some relevant guidelines are as follow which could be also useful for collegiate students and authorities to much extent:
• Strengthening relationship between children and their carers to address factors related to family conflict, maltreatment and poor attachment.
• Improving language skills and impulse control in tender students.
• Parental training, home visits and social support for new parents.
• Developing parenting skills – programmes should take account of culture-specific parenting styles.
• Social competence approach – focusing on developing skills increasing mental and social well-being.
• Social support – promoting access to a positive relationship with an adult.
• Interactive intervention programmes and cognitive-behavioural approaches rather than sheer assurance and guidance.
• Increased support for students with disabilities.
• Increased compliance with law relevant to students with special needs.
• Plans to promote, recognize, reward and support quality in teaching and learning.
• Provision for Crisis intervention and providing web based mental health information for students.
• To work in partnership with the Students’ Association in promoting mental well-being through awareness raising events.
The author Anand Prakash is an Assistant Professor in Clinical Psychology, Department of Psychology, Unversity of Gondar, Ethiopia. He can be reached at anandprakash72@yahoo.com.
The concept of Emotional Intelligence is not new and it has been around in various forms for some 90 years, but it is the work of Daniel Goleman with his conceptualization of a range of “People skills” which he has called “emotional intelligence” a label first app[lied to this area by Salovey and Meyer in 1990, that has really brought the concept to the fore front.
It was believed earlier that IQ plays the most important role in predicting success. But research has shown that IQ alone fails to sufficiently amount for differences in success levels in individuals both in an educational and organizational context. Personality is another dimension that plays a large role in determining the success or otherwise of an individual but again this was also not amounting for differences in individual success.
Research suggests that IQ, intelligence or technical skills alone cannot determine successful performance. Major case studies and research over the years by such individuals as Thorndike in the early 1920s and more recently. Howard Gardner, Salovey and Meyer and Goelman have identified a range of key “People skills” - a combination of traits, values and behaviors - which play a major role in determining successful performance. Studies have revealed that the most successful people tend to possess a combination of a high level of both “intellect” and “emotional”. Competencies - exhibiting traits such as self-awareness, self-regulation, self-motivation, empathy and social skills. It is this combination of emotional intelligence and intellectual skills, which is the most powerful determinant of successful and effective job performance. One of the central premises of EI theory is that people, who have a good mix of IQ and EQ, tend to be more successful in their chosen fields than those who have outstanding IQ and under developed EQ.
In a nutshell all the research indicates that IQ + EQ = Success.
THE CONCEPT AND NATURE OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Researchers have defined the concept of E.I. in a variety of ways.
E.I. is the ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth (Mayer and Salovey, 1997)
Mayer-Salovey Model
The emotionally intelligent person is skilled in 4 areas. One of the most powerful and unique aspects of this 4-branch model is that it is simple to understand and to apply.
Identifying Emotions
The ability to recognize how oneself and those around him are feeling.
Using Emotions to Facilitate Thought
The ability to generate an emotion, and then reason with this emotion.
Understand Emotions
The ability to understand complex emotions and emotional “chains”. How emotions transition from one state to another.
Managing Emotions - The ability, which allows you to manage emotions in your self and in other side.
Goleman (1998) defines E.I. as the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships. E.I. describes abilities distinct from, but complementary to, academic intelligence or the purely cognitive capacities measured by I.Q.
Goelman has also identified a set of emotional competencies that differentiate individuals from each other and the competencies fall into four clusters.
Heart and Head Combined
Emotional intelligence is not the opposite of intelligence, it is not the triumph of head over heart - it is the unique intersection of both.
Emotional Intelligence is the ability to use your emotions help you solve problem and live a more effective life. E.I. without intelligence, or intelligence without E.I. is only part of a solution. It is the head working with the heart.
It was believed earlier that IQ plays the most important role in predicting success. But research has shown that IQ alone fails to sufficiently amount for differences in success levels in individuals both in an educational and organizational context. Personality is another dimension that plays a large role in determining the success or otherwise of an individual but again this was also not amounting for differences in individual success.
Research suggests that IQ, intelligence or technical skills alone cannot determine successful performance. Major case studies and research over the years by such individuals as Thorndike in the early 1920s and more recently. Howard Gardner, Salovey and Meyer and Goelman have identified a range of key “People skills” - a combination of traits, values and behaviors - which play a major role in determining successful performance. Studies have revealed that the most successful people tend to possess a combination of a high level of both “intellect” and “emotional”. Competencies - exhibiting traits such as self-awareness, self-regulation, self-motivation, empathy and social skills. It is this combination of emotional intelligence and intellectual skills, which is the most powerful determinant of successful and effective job performance. One of the central premises of EI theory is that people, who have a good mix of IQ and EQ, tend to be more successful in their chosen fields than those who have outstanding IQ and under developed EQ.
In a nutshell all the research indicates that IQ + EQ = Success.
The Concept and Nature of Emotional Intelligence
Researchers have defined the concept of E.I. in a variety of ways.
E.I. is the ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth (Mayer and Salovey, 1997)
Mayer-Salovey Model
The emotionally intelligent person is skilled in 4 areas. One of the most powerful and unique aspects of this 4-branch model is that it is simple to understand and to apply.
Identifying Emotions: The ability to recognize how oneself and those around him are feeling.
Using Emotions to Facilitate Thought:The ability to generate an emotion, and then reason with this emotion.
Understand Emotions :The ability to understand complex emotions and emotional “chains”. How emotions transition from one state to another.
Managing Emotions : The ability, which allows you to manage emotions in your self and in other side.
Goleman (1998) defines E.I. as the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships. E.I. describes abilities distinct from, but complementary to, academic intelligence or the purely cognitive capacities measured by I.Q.
Goelman has also identified a set of emotional competencies that differentiate individuals from each other and the competencies fall into four clusters.
Heart and Head Combined
Emotional intelligence is not the opposite of intelligence, it is not the triumph of head over heart - it is the unique intersection of both.
Emotional Intelligence is the ability to use your emotions help you solve problem and live a more effective life. E.I. without intelligence, or intelligence without E.I. is only part of a solution. It is the head working with the heart.
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