Troubled Children and Youth

Troubled children and youth in today’s society often have difficulty connecting with their community, social surroundings, family, education system, and other institutions that are crucial to growth and development. Many factors influence a troubled child’s behaviour. Firstly, an individual’s family is a strong indicator of future behaviour. The family socializes children from a young age and their behaviour is often a reflection of the influences that they are, exposed to within the home. If a child is, exposed to negative influences such as drug and alcohol addiction, poverty, family breakdown and instability their behaviour is directly impacted. Children and youth may develop anti-social behaviour that is carried on within the community. More so, children may exhibit “at- risk” or be labeled as deviant, and may not be socially accepted, which further results in troubled behaviour.

Secondly, the social behaviour of an individual is often a reflection of their peer group. Therefore, the peer groups, which troubled children and youth associate with, may provide an explanation for their behaviour. When children and youth engage in troubled behaviour, it is often to be socially accepted by their peers. Troubled behaviour within the peer group may consist of vandalism, drugs, rebellious behaviour, defying authority, and gang association. In addition, troubled children and youth are often stigmatized by society, the media, and other social institutions as deviant or “at-risk”. This makes it difficult for them to connect to their community. When an individual cannot positively engage in their community they are often isolated, which results in troubled behaviour. Consequently, these individuals are unable to develop positive relationships with people of authority.

When a child or youth is troubled, they often display cues that indicate they are experiencing problems or signs of distress. For example, children and youth may become more secretive, or have sudden outburst and display feelings of anger. Furthermore, their physical appearance may be effected, such as their personal hygiene or clothing. In addition, children and youth may become more hostile, or display a change of attitude towards parents, teachers, and figures of authority. Troubled youth may also change their peer groups and begin to associate with friends who are more defiant. Lastly, children and youth may lose motivation to excel in activities that were once of a great interest. For example, school grades may drop suddenly and lack of participation in extra- curricular activities, sports teams and hobbies.

In order to help the children they work with child and youth workers need to establish a trusting and positive relationship with their clients. It is important to build a safe environment for troubled children, in order to provide them with support and effective treatment. Implementing strategies such as establishing boundaries, planned activities, coordinated treatment interventions, and organized activities, will maintain consistency between the child and youth worker and the individual, building a positive rapport. Furthermore, child and youth care practitioners need to provide resources for children and their families as well as ongoing support. It is also important for practitioners to promote positive changes by guiding the individual to recognize their personal strengths. Developing individual and group programs is essential for treating the individual as it allows a child and youth practitioner to connect to their client. Lastly, to provide a troubled child with the most effective treatment, the practitioner needs to maintain their professional development by learning new methods of training, techniques and education.