The 5 child barriers: aggression, bullying, sexuality, technology and alcohol
Children, adolescents and young people today face many challenges, but there are 5 main barriers that cause more problems in their lives: increased aggression, bullying or school bullying, uninhibited sexuality, problems with alcohol and dependence on technology. As a whole, all of them have resulted in an increase of 120% in visits to family and youth therapies, according to an analysis carried out by Coaching Club.
Aggressiveness and bullying
According to data from the World Health Organization WHO, 24.8% of Spanish children between 11 and 18 years old suffer or have suffered bullying. Verónica Rodríguez Orellana, Director and therapist of Coaching Club explains that, "not taking measures to correct these behaviors at an early age, causes children to acquire a model of toxic and predatory interpersonal relationship, based on force and imposition, which it consolidates with the years ".
Consultations and therapies increased in 2016 a 90% on issues of aggression and harassment in ages between 7 and 17 years. Detecting these symptoms becomes a key factor for the prevention and fight against this harassment. The return to school after the holidays whether summer, Christmas or Easter are often accompanied by the worsening of symptoms. January and March-April, are times in which greater attention should be paid to the state of mind of children.
How can we detect bullying from home?
There are some common attitudes among children who suffer this type of harassment. You will be able to detect it in the minors close to you when:
- Notes a special change of behavior in the child / adolescent
- The victim does not want to attend class
- He suffers Sunday afternoon Syndrome
- Notes that have unjustified bruises and bruises
- Shows a high degree of irritability and nervousness
- Experience changes of character
- Presents unjustified sadness
- Do not feel like seeing your friends or leaving home
- Loss of objects, for example, loss of money you give them for recess
- He suffers from headache and abdominal pains
"We must bear in mind that bullying is not an innocent game, the bullied does not survive the same reacting with a revenge of the same level and bullying is far from favoring the hardening of a child's character, but always constitutes a serious violation of their rights, degrades their dignity as a human being and can have difficult consequences to stop in the vital future of the individual, "explains Verónica Orellana.
Uninhibited sexuality
On the other hand, there are more and more recurrent consultations of parents on sexuality issues and training or sex education with their children when they are between 10 and 16 years old. The main problem comes from the lack of maturity that makes sexual relationships themselves games.
"Fashions such as sexual roulette, boredom, fashions among friends and a lack of sexual education can have far-reaching consequences in their lives, but the children themselves do not see it as relationships but as a pure game without taking into account sexual transmission, tears, pregnancies and other problems derived, "explains this therapist.
Problems with alcohol
Another of the recurring themes in therapy is the control of alcohol by the youngest. It is becoming easier to access this product and, nevertheless, the management of this drink is more uncontrolled among them, arriving in tragic cases, as has been seen recently, to fatal outcomes and deaths or ethyl commas.
Verónica Rodríguez Orellana explains that "adolescents see alcohol in a first class ticket to disinhibition, to daring, to relaxation, in addition to freedom without barriers, which is a fascinating temptation".
Like all drugs, alcohol has a diverse and variable effect on personality and not only about the organism. Some people get euphoric, some people get dizzy, some people feel very sleepy, some people get fun and get close to the person they like; there are also those who, on the other hand, become aggressive and fight even with the friends they love the most.
"The most immediate and perceptible sensation is that of disinhibition: it makes lightweight previously complicated situations to confront and socialize the drinker to an extreme degree, so it seems that alcohol consumption could be evaluated positively in the case of people subject to demands. elevated, but there is no doubt that it requires strict control of the dose ingested, "explains the director of Coaching Club.
Dependence on technology
Although addiction to the Internet and digital devices is not yet contemplated in the latest version of the Manual of Diagnosis and Treatment of Mental Disorders, there are studies carried out in several countries that show a growing and global concern in this regard, highlighting an increase in this addiction to the Internet or the compulsive use of mobile phones and their applications until they are encrypted. 176 million users with this type of dependency.
According to Verónica Rodríguez Orellana, "technology is generating in the smallest, although in adults as well, a subordination to the digital world and this multiprocess modality provokes true resentment and uneasiness in the parents, since they consider that so much fragmentation of the activity, dedication and attention will negatively affect the school performance of the children ".
"It is remarkable the way in which the number of applications (apps) for mobile phones and tablets, aimed at children, has skyrocketed. Games, social networks, photography applications ... offer solutions for simple acts of daily life and new ways to establish relationships with friends. However, the problem arises when the line that separates the use of abuse becomes thin and imperceptible to such an extent that the problems they cause outweigh the solutions and dependence reaches limits that make our own self-management impossible in the absence of these technological aids, "explains Verónica Rodríguez Orellana.
It is important to note that not all people are susceptible to developing an addiction, since this requires the presence of a number of factors, among which the individual's own vulnerability and predisposition.
The main issue addressed in family coaching therapies is the definition of limits as something not negative but as the rules that rationally order the consumption of the wide range of technology, content and leisure. Verónica Rodríguez Orellana explains that "the limits are very far from behaving exclusively, the sanction and the limitation, they suppose essentially guiding, protecting, preventing or advising".
José Antonio Tobar
Advice: VErónica Rodríguez Orellana. Director and therapist of Coaching Club
It may interest you:
- How to fight against bullying
- 7 tips against child aggression
- Sex education to exam
- Alcohol and adolescents: advice from the AEP to prevent consumption
