RIZIČNA PONAŠANJA I MENTALNO ZDRAVLJE DJECE I MLADIH – RODITELJSKA PERSPEKTIVA
RISK BEHAVIORS AND MENTAL HEALTH OF CHILDREN AND YOUTH - PARENTAL PERSPECTIVE

Summary/Abstract: Adolescence represents a period of significant psychological, physical and social changes marked by the development of attitudes and opinions on people and environment as well as finding yourself and your place in the ever-changing world. Additionally, it represents a highly risky period for the development of difficulties in personality functioning as well as occurrence of risky and dysfunctional behaviors. Family relationships and parents‟ behaviors represent key dimensions of child's life. Children and youth are exposed to numerous risks in both family and broader environment, which explicitly and implicitly affect their emotional functioning as well as mental health. The study was conducted in 2023 on a purposive sample of 195 participants (adults older than18). Data collection was carried out via questionnaire created for the purpose of this study. The results show lower estimations of children and youth's emotional functioning compared to their physical and intellectual counterparts. Participants‟ responses point towards problems such as children's behavior towards their parents, other children and themselves followed by anxiety, depressive and destructive states as well as violence. The vast majority of participants does not detect risk factors in family (domestic abuse, mental illnesses, addictions, sexual disorders, etc.). On the other hand, they predominately identify and single out the issue of unhealthy lifestyles within the family as the biggest risk factor. They associate concern for children and youth with media and virtual content's influence, lack of parental competencies, disrespect of parent's authority as well as ignoring of moral values in the family and broader environment. The participants highlight the existence of poor relationships in the family between children and parents, however, they neither detect the issue of premature sexual activity, tendencies towards violence, staying out very late nor the consumption of drugs and opiates which is in disparity with official indicators. In prevention of risk behaviors among children and youth, the participants single out the importance of factors from the communication spectrum, positive relationships as well as non-violent resolving of conflicts. Thus, the aforementioned results are in favor of emphasizing the significance of primary prevention, encouraging mental health and providing opportunities to empower families in order to enable children and youth to cope with stressful situations and numerous other daily challenges.

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