Student responses about self raise alarm Loop Barbados

Black Immigrant Daily News

According to Barbadian psychologist Shawn Clarke, an “alarming” number of Barbadian students are struggling with mental health issues.

The CEO/director of Supreme Counselling for Personal Development (SCPD) was speaking on Wednesday at the Hilton Resort about the SCPD’s ‘Reach One, Save One” campaign when he reported the concerning findings of a study conducted last year.

The November 2021 study conducted by the SCPD amongst 11- to 18-year-olds reported that “young people showed alarming negative perceptions of self”.

The study was administered to First to Sixth Formers at 19 secondary schools across the island, with 6,337 students – 38 per cent of the students – completing the questionnaire out of 16, 748 .

Clarke revealed that 26 per cent of the respondents showed a negative perception of self and 25 per cent of the participants confessed to having suicidal thoughts often. Additionally, 34 per cent said they were depressed often.

Noting that the study only accounted for just over a quarter of the student population, Clarke voiced that the numbers might be higher.

“It brings the question therefore that if we were able to survey 80 per cent of that population, what would the numbers be like?,” said the CEO.

“The study revealed that many students had difficulty maintaining their mental health, handling conflict and controlling anger,” he continued.

Clarke also reported that 33 per cent of the students reported that they were sad often and approximately 1, 950 – 30 per cent – showed some mental health concerns.

Broaching on the topic of handling conflict, 35 per cent stated they could not resolve conflict and 25 per cent had weak conflict resolution skills. The SCPD CEO shared that an average of 2, 956 students – 47 per cent – showed anger management concerns; 61 per cent of the students said they got angry quickly and 39 per cent confessed they could not manage their anger.

“They cannot talk things out. The first thing they go to is fighting, cursing, getting involved in those antisocial behaviours,” Clarke explained.

The CEO of SCPD shared that the newly established Rescue One, Save One initiative sought to address the problems the youth faced in the school and the community and find a “remedy”.

The programme is divided into three main components – Project Rescue which focuses on the school environment; Families in Therapy (FIT) Programme and the Community Assistance Programme (CAP).

“Many of these risky behaviours amongst adolescents are linked to their upbringing, their living conditions, parent-child relationships and peer interactions, both the students and teachers perceived parenting skills and the home environment, as the most significant contributor to disruptive behaviour… many external factors shape adolescents’ coping strategies and behaviours. We are providing single parents with the tools and techniques for coping with and overcoming their difficult situations. We can help create better parent-child relationships and emotionally agile Barbadian citizens,” Clarke emphasised.

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