Study points to rise in youth behavioural issues
OTTAWA, ON–A new report by the Vanier Institute of the Family indicates there has been a dramatic rise in the number of children and teens demonstrating severe problematic behaviour over the last three decades.
The report, "Contemporary Family Trends," draws on 80 Canadian and U.S. studies to document the increase in bad behaviour and points to multiple causes including poor parenting, media influences and reduced emphasis on religion "as a life-structuring element and agency of social control."
According to the study, "problematic behaviours are acts that negatively affect or hurt others, are destructive of or stressful to institutions such as families and schools as well as property and the natural environment."
As many as one in five children and youth today exhibit such behaviour according to an article in The Globe and Mail, up from one in 20 three decades ago.
The Vanier Institute is an internationally respected institute, established in 1965 to study and support families and family trends. Executive Director, Alan Mirabelli says problems show up in children as early as two years of age with hyperactivity and temper tantrums and escalate to lack of respect for authority. This includes "truancy, aggressive acts towards classmates, the bullying that's become so much a part of the news, early sexual behaviours ... and acts of aggression [in the teen years]."
Such behaviours are having a negative impact on schools. At the urging of its members, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF) studied the phenomenon of students bullying teachers in 2005. "We asked teachers and educators across the province what kinds of experiences they'd had," says Rhonda Kimberley-Young, President of the OSSTF, "and we saw higher levels of bullying types of behaviours than we expected."
While the study looked at a range of bullying behaviours, "we found that the majority of our members, teachers and support workers across the province who said they'd been bullied, felt it had been by students," says Kimberley-Young.
"I think in some ways, we'd like to find one single cause so that we can inoculate children against it," says Mirabelli. "But what we've discovered in fact, is that it's a whole series of changes that have happened in the culture and then when they interact with each other, they create some of this."
"There's no one single response," says Mirabelli, adding that the Institute's purpose in doing the study was to indicate how complex the problem is and to point out that "there's room not just for teachers and schools, there's room for churches, there's room for community organizations," to make a positive difference in young lives.
Youth culture specialist, Paul Robertson of Youth Unlimited Toronto agrees. "You know the old African proverb, 'it takes a whole village to raise a child.' I say the whole village is basically dysfunctional today. There is so much brokenness and lack of hope in the community."
"I think parents need to make a choice. They have to decide, 'are my kids my priority? Or is my job my priority, or another relationship a priority?' And if kids are our priority, we'll make time for them. I think kids are dying for time with parents and adults."
As evidence, he cites the proliferation of web sites such as "MySpace.com" where youth can connect with each other. "What are they looking for?" Robertson asks. "They're looking for relationship. They're looking for someone to listen to them and to love them. And I think parents need to step up to the plate and say, 'all the material things in the world don't necessarily make me happy. I only get one shot at my kids and they have to be my priority.'"
Dear Readers:
ChristianWeek relies on your generous support. please take a minute and donate to help give voice to stories that inform, encourage and inspire.
Donations of $20 or more will receive a charitable receipt.Thank you, from Christianweek.
