Mental Health and Family Dynamics of Underprivileged Children

In the last decade there has been an increasing interest in the level of stress, trauma, or violence experienced by humanitarian workers, but relatively little focus on the other side of the coin qualities that promote resilience and thriving in these challenging environments .The notion that family environment and school plays a buffering role in protecting child from brunt of life stress has powerful implications for course of action and healthy development. Case study approach was used on three adolescents from marginalized families of Chandigarh living in poor outer edge; each one had only one room for the entire family and the neighborhood was crowded with similar living units. Rapport building was done, interviews were held with the subjects and meeting at which information about subject was gathered by researchers from their parents and siblings. A meeting was arranged at which information about subject was gathered from his teachers and martial art instructor, which also included observations of subjects in regular class setup for two weeks. The conclusions drawn were that the at-risk factors identified as per perceived by the subjects were role models (fathers) indulging in alcohol and smoking, habit of stealing, aggression and violence. Mothers in all the three cases were greater source of comfort than fathers. Fathers' absenteeism for long hours at work was disliked. The observations of the researcher harmonized with the inputs from the teachers, neighborhood. Attending charity school acted as a major buffer; they could not afford it otherwise. A huge onus lied on the scope for improving home environment of such children and working on dynamics within the family.