‘Time to look at what we’re doing for our children’

Kamal Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury is a professor of the department of clinical psychology of Dhaka University and programme director of Nasirullah Psychotherapy Unit – an outpatient mental health unit managed by DU's department of clinical psychology. He has been researching adolescent mental health and juvenile delinquency for decades. Recently he talked to The Daily Star about the sudden rise of criminal behaviour among youths and adolescents.

Q: Adolescents are forming street gangs and often commit organised crimes. Multiple instances of faceoffs between rival gangs have been reported. What is influencing them?

A: Adolescents love to spend time with their peers. They want to learn from them and they want their recognition. They love group activities. When such groups commit an offence, we call them gangs, adding a negative connotation to their activities. But groups of youth have also done great work such as road safety movements. When these youths are not motivated to do positive activities, when they are not appreciated for their good qualities, and when they are treated as "the other" in society, they may form such groups.

However, social media and popular media are also some of the biggest contributing factors. Through social media, which they have used excessively during the pandemic, they learn to interact with people who are just like them.

They join social media groups where they find many youths who act and think like them. Many of these youngsters have millions of followers without making any real contribution to society.

In this manner, these youths confine themselves to a very narrow sense of identity and culture, which they reproduce by forming groups in their real lives. They take inspiration by observing other such groups on social media and popular media, such as drama serials and cinema.

Q: What is your comment on the mental health condition of Bangladesh's adolescents?

A: According to a 2019 study conducted by National Institute of Mental health, 14 percent of the below-18 population have been suffering from conduct disorder, which means these children persistently show anti-social behaviour.

Among them, 1.7 percent are involved in criminal activities. If you consider Bangladesh's population, the number is huge. Again, this study was conducted before the pandemic. I believe that the mental health condition of our youth has deteriorated drastically during the pandemic.

More than 90 percent of these adolescents do not get any medical attention due to lack of awareness in the family and also due to scarcity of mental health services in our country.

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused the situation to further deteriorate as children have become severely deprived of healthy recreation, and are overly engaged in social media. Many adolescents find their families suddenly in impoverished condition due to income losses induced by the pandemic.

Many adolescents and youth have been suffering from depression due to such factors and getting addicted to narcotics. Suicide rate among them has also increased alarmingly.

Q: What effective measures can be taken to keep children away from such destructive activities?

A: The time has come to think about what services we are providing our adolescents and youth instead of focusing on what they are doing. If we can think in this way, we shall see that we have deprived them of healthy recreation, and co-curricular activities in schools, we have deprived them of a safe childhood within their own community.

We must ensure healthy recreation, outdoor physical sports and outdoor co-curricular activities for adolescents. We need to build organisations such as clubs, volunteerism-based youth organisations so that youth are engaged in creative activities and community services.

Teachers' training and parenting training is also essential. Including everything in the textbook and syllabus will not help at all unless teachers are trained to deliver quality and impactful teaching.

Some parents impose excessive, unnecessary restrictions on their children. They often physically punish their children and use abusive words against them. When these children find their back against the wall, they start to commit offences to break free from those restrictions. Ultimately, they want to break social norms and create their own rules.

On the other hand, overly permissible and protective parenting can also encourage them to commit crimes as they think they will get away with their misdeeds with the help of their parents. Again, overlooking offences of one's own children and maintaining silence is also an instance of such parenting that encourages children to commit further offences.

Also, if children see their parents involved in criminal activities, they are very likely to get involved in criminal activities as they see their parents as their role models.

Recently we have conducted a study on parents of children having conduct disorder. We developed a module on positive parenting and after training the parents for one month, we conducted an assessment.

Our assessment proved that the training parents reduced the frequency of anti-social behaviour among children significantly. Another follow-up study after one month showed similar results. We should organise training on positive parenting all over the country as soon as possible.