Mental Disorders (Depression) and Violence

Background of the Problem

In spite of the soaring violence rates against the women as well as the recent consideration to both the physical and emotional effects of this abuse, till recently has fairly little attention been given to the unnoticed victims- children.  According to the United States Department of Justice (1998), nearly half of the women who are domestic violence victims reside in households with children who are under 12 (Children’s Exposure to Domestic Violence, 2006, p.8). It is, therefore, significant to assess the effects of the exposure of these actions to children in terms of depression and violence. After many years of research, there has been accruing considerable proof proposing that individuals with mental disorders are considerably have more tendency to engage in violent behaviors in comparison to those who are without mental disorders.

Statement of the Problem

There is a general agreement that severe mental disorder increases the risk of violence among people (Dorn, Volavka & Johnson, 2011). Scientists are not as much interested in the happening of inaccessible violent acts amongst those who are a mental ill, as well as more concerned on whether children who are mentally ill do violent acts with superior frequency or seriousness as compared to the non-mentally ill children. Consequently, the subject of whether the children of being violent are fundamental to the scientific discussion.

Purpose of the Study

The objective will be to observe whether there is a causal relationship between mental disorders or depression and violence among the children who portrayed violent behaviors.

Theoretical Framework

This study will assess the relationship of mental disorder as well as violence by addressing the following questions: Are mentally ill children violent? Are children with mental disorders at augmented threat of violence? Is the public at any risk? Mental disorders are not essential or adequate bases of violence. The main determinants of violent behavior persist to be socio-demographic as well as economic aspects.

The abuse of the substance is the most important determinant of violence plus this is accurate whether synchronized mental disorder or not. As a result, timely identification and handling of substance abuse troubles and better concentration to the analysis and supervision of simultaneous substance abuse disorders amongst acutely mentally sick may be probable violence avoidance strategies. Many people overstate both the strong point of the connection between mental disorders and violence in addition to their individual risk. Lastly, there is too little that is known in relation to the social appropriate determinants of violent behavior, but research maintains the examination the mentally sick are more frequently victims than doers of violence.

Research Hypotheses

1. Children exposed to an abundance of negativity will seek approval or positivity through other means and  violent mental disorder. 

2. Children who are put down more than those who are not will act on that negativity and are more likely to develop a violent mental disorder. 

3. Children who commit acts of disobedience to fulfill their needs with no reprimand will continuously do it to fulfill their needs and are at a greater risk of developing a violent mental disorder. 

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Researchers have for a long time comprehended that many individuals who have mental disorders do not have violent behaviors. According to Davis, M. (2007), children appear to be the single group of people who are exposed to violence, which is tolerable in the form of physical punishment. The harmful assault on children by their parents or guardians makes them to be violent. The injustice that children are exposed to as a result of the lack of consensus regarding the acceptable punishment towards ought to be addressed. Adults who support the smacking of children ought to be reminded children are beings with rights and not merely objects. They are small as well as young people whose bodies proper with respect to care, and whose minds are positively motivated by high regard along with sensitive attention. Typically reliant and susceptible, their small bodies as well as young minds are highly vulnerable to abuse by their elders. The society places the responsibility of taking care and protecting of children on their parents and guardians, and not to cause physical harm to them (Slade & Tapping, 2008).

Conventionally a form of chastising children, physical punishment is a measure that parents have adopted exclusive of a critical questioning of its effectiveness from generations to generations. There are instances that smacking of children turns out to be injurious, which is a fundamental violation of their rights. In many cases, smacking of children, usually, starts when they are young and may escalate in terms of severity particularly to children who are involved to manage (Ambikapathy, 2002). The physical punishing of children is endorsed in the Australian common law as well as statute (Willow & Hyder, 2009). In general, the physical smacking of a child is considered as being the right of parents, who are given the discretion of hitting their children as they like. Children are helpless and susceptible. Parents who are caring will hardly ever cause harm to their children. Nevertheless, smacking put children at a high risk of severe injury. The rights of children that are recognized in Articles 19(1) as well as 37 of the UN Rights of Children are seldom applied. Smacking of children, in its acute forms, is the same as criminal assault (Dixon, 2008). 

Gaps in Current Research

i.    There are rather few studies on the adverse effects of smacking on children. More studies ought to be done about the subject of smacking of children and its ineffectiveness in instilling discipline to children.

Ii.    The current research on ban snacking of children does not adequately tackle the effects of physical punishment on a child.

Chapter 3: Method

Research Design

The Research will entail the application of quantitative research design in determining whether the children who are mentally ill tend to have violent behaviors. This is because this approach recognizes less the subjectivity of the researcher in the study and places emphasis on dissimilar variables as well as it can create a cause and effect in circumstances that are very controlled. In addition, a quantitative research design is more reliable, objective and makes the assumption that the sample represents the entire population. The statistical approach of a quantitative research design can be used to make a generalization of the findings.

While conducting this research, it will be determined that the quantitative research design to be adopted will circumvent approaching the school children straightforwardly as it is hard to ask them questions. In this study, the violent behaviors of the children who have mental illnesses will be determined and recorded. The observer will then propose a different method of assessment that is supposed to be used throughout the evaluation of mentally ill children. This method of observation method is considered as a significant element when children have to be evaluated in, for example, in the school setting; but it is as well significant for data to be collected from other sources, e.g. from tutors and parents. The availability of an observer may influence the chance for observing the “natural” behavior in the school children as some of them might react to the attendance of an outsider. Nonetheless, as the findings from a study by Oliver et al. (2001) reveals, the observers have a higher capacity to realize more issues with the behavior of the children as compared to the teachers. In reviewing of the literature, electronic databases as well as bibliographies were assessed regarding violence in children who have mental disorders.

 

 

Participants

This research design selected 40 children from a local school, who were reported to having a high level of violence by administration. Seventy percent of these children were boys, and thirty percent were girls. The ages of these children were between eight and ten years with the average being nine years of age.

The study chose to focus on children since they are in a developing stage where they face many things both at the school and family level. The circumstances that children are exposed to may make them to be become violent (Oliver et al., 2001). Therefore, the involvement of children in the research can improve the scope as well as findings of the study.

The children were compensated for taking part in the research by being bought some snack, as well as stationery such as paintings. However, the children were not supposed to know that they are under observation as this would somehow interfere with their behaviors.

The recruitment of the group to be used in the study was carried out by the help of a teacher who was the children’s instructor. This is because the teacher was well acquainted with the violent behaviors that were occurring among the pupils.

The violent behaviors by these children will be recorded on a daily basis in their school environment depending on acts of indiscipline they did during the first week, whereas throughout the second week, children without mental disorders will be observed for cases of violence.  This data will then recorded down for the purpose of analysis.

Instrumentation

During the research, the observer will be given an observation form where he will document the number of children who have mental disorders and have violent behaviors. The type of data used will be purely by observation. There will be two kinds of observation forms; one white in color whereas the other red. The white one will be filled with data that is from children who are mentally ill and have violent behaviors, whereas the red one will be filled with data from children who do not have mental disorders placed in the same situations and observing how differently or not different the children act. The observation form will be in a quantitative context as the form was arranged in rows and columns that recorded on different sides the violent behaviors of children who have mental disorders. A different form will also provide every day, and the data was combined at the end of week two.

Research Procedure

            During the first week, the selected class which was told they were excused from class, was provided with fluorescent lighting and a trained observer was at the classroom, daily for one hour, and made an observation of the occurrences of hyperkinetic activities by the students with ADHD and learning disabilities. The observer then recorded the number hyperactivity that he noticed among the class every day in a red observation form on a regular basis, for five days. During the following week, all the fluorescent lighting that were in the classroom were switched off and removed, and were then substituted with incandescent lamps. A selection for the new full spectrum lighting was done and then placed relatively as close as possible, with a similar candlepower as well as contrast of illumination in the classrooms where fluorescent lights provided lighting. The observer then repeated the observation process again and also noted down the number of hyperactivity among children from the same class in a blue observation form. There were no instructions given to the children and were allowed to go about themselves doing small activities. Formal consent to carry out the study was as well received from the school administration.

Data Analysis

After observing the school children for a number of ten days on the group that has mental disorders and that which has not, the data will be filled in the following was observed.

 

 

Results and Findings (Email us and we will provide)

Gender of the respondents
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Male	28	70.0	70.0	70.0
	Female	12	30.0	30.0	100.0
	Total	40	100.0	100.0

 

 

 

 

Extent to which mentally ill children are violent
N	Valid	40
	Missing	0
Mean		2.9250
Mode		2.00

 

Extent to which mentally ill children are violent
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Not likely	6	15.0	15.0	15.0
	Less likely	11	27.5	27.5	42.5
	Not sure	8	20.0	20.0