Parenting and Mental Health

Nowadays, due to pandemic situation, mental disorders among children are also on the rise in this situation. Specially among adolescent age, there is an increase in incidence of committing suicide. ETV Bharat Sukhibhava was in conversation with Dr. Shama Jagadish Kulkarni, M.B.B.S, D.C.H, I.B.C.L.C, Developmental, Adolescent’s and Lactation Pediatrician, at Jagadisha Child Guidance and Lactation Management Clinic, Nasik, Maharashtra for more insights on the same.

Several factors lead to mental disorders in adolescent age. Those are break ups, peer pressure, higher education system verses their capacity as portrayed by parents’ wishes, parents pressurizing, bullying by friends in school, colleges eg; giving different challenges with reference to weight, height skin complexion and many more. Adolescents believe & get engrossed in social media like WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, twitter, & various sites of pornography, etc. Chemical changes in the brain take place at this age. A boy is portrayed to behave bold, confidently, using bad language, and a girl or females are supposed to be sober behaving listening to what the father or husbands telling them.at the same time she should not be using bad language, she should adjust to the behaviour of every male member at home and if she accepts what is told to her even if she is not wrong.

How can good parenting help tide over the crisis?

Parents should teach children LIFE SKILLS. They should discuss with child about how to have a communication confidently by having eye to eye contact, how to understand once friends or fellow batchmates, how to solve any problems they face in day today life ,how to make decisions. Parents must teach the child about attitude of gratitude. Empathy is the most important skill to be taught. Child should be praised when he or she does anything positively.

A child develops a habit of bribing parents. When he/ she gets good marks parents gift the child in the form of money, or having food at favorite restaurants .Instead it should be like hugging or kissing the child. Every parent should convey the child about the individual thinking, developing or inculcating love, gratitude, self-esteem self-respect & self-reliance.

Sometimes parents tell the child to behave properly, respect elders, but in turn parents disobey their elders, fight in front of them leaving the child to think that it is a good sign to disobey elders.

All this requires a skilled person for training and it is advisable to seek professional advice from an experienced adolescent’s counsellor and should be done over a substantial period of time.

For further queries, contact kulkarnishamaj@gmail.com