No Escape from Violence: What can we do?

by Admin · June 22, 2015

Educators strive to nurture the youth towards healthy futures, yet negative life events interfere with the ability to facilitate learning, writes educational psychologist DR GLORIA MARSAY.

Negative life events can have an impact on learners at school�as well as on teachers�psychologist Gloria Marsay writes. (Graphic: Emily Thompson)

Physical, psychological and social wellbeing are interrelated and develop in a stable social environment. However, our nation is unstable and burdened with negative life events.

South Africans have not been left untouched by socio-political changes in the country. There was a time in the 1990s when we hung on to the notion of the �Rainbow nation�. It was a nation committed to fairness, equality and hope for a peaceful future.

The euphoria and trust we experienced seems to have evaporated. We don�t know whom or what to trust. Yet, trust is the glue necessary for healthy psychosocial development.

It is within healthy social relationships that we grow and develop. The burden of violence, however, has led us full circle back to high levels of negative life events.

These social and psychological� factors contributing to violence are different and� interrelated.

They include widespread poverty, chronic unemployment and income inequality, gender inequality, patriarchal notions of masculinity, exposure to abuse in childhood and compromised parenting, access to firearms, widespread alcohol misuse and weaknesses in the systems of law enforcement.

Sadly, recently published research indicates that South Africa produces an extraordinary annual burden of violence-related morbidity and mortality. This triggers significant health, economic, and social consequences.

Imagine how difficult it is for effective learning to take place when learners literally fear for their lives.

Health and wellbeing is influenced by a person�s exposure to life events�negative and positive�and to their ability to access effective coping strategies.

The impact of living in a country shattered by negative life events results in problems with healthy development, the decline of the psycho-social self, and leads to physical, emotional, cognitive and spiritual dysfunctions.

A shattering of this kind changes the way people engage in higher order thinking, and it interferes with the ability to learn.

Intrusive thoughts interfere with concentration. Learning is slower. Learners become frustrated with their perceived lack of progress and are inclined to give up. Learners lack presence, often dissociating, daydreaming and appearing to �switch off�. Learners lack confidence in themselves and their academic ability. Learners who live in unstable environments may provoke crises because to them this is a familiar social dynamic. Learners mistrust adults and often misinterpret educators� motives and intentions. Learners may use learning as an escape and withdraw from useful social interaction.

Furthermore, negative life events interfere with the ability to facilitate learning. Educators are often the first persons to hear stories of negative life events.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that in some cases the only support system our learners have are their peers, their educators and the school community. Educators often assume the role of primary caregivers.

Educators are also exposed to their own negative life events, and at the same time, are confronted with the difficult task of working with those who have been effected by negative life events. Such work requires deep reserves of physical, emotional and spiritual strength.

Educators are vulnerable to compassion fatigue, and so it is necessary to create their own social support systems and to develop resilience factors essential to survival in the atmosphere of violence.

There is no inoculation against the effects that violence has on the healthy psychosocial development of our learners.

It is a myth that we have grown accustomed to and immune to the effects of violence. Everybody is vulnerable to the effects of violence.

Some experience it in their homes where they should be safe.� Others see the effects of violence in their surroundings. Our television news and popular programmes seem to be made of the fabric of violence. There is no escape.

Growing up in a supportive environment allows for the healthy development of self-esteem and self-efficacy.

This growth should start in the family where secure attachment assists the development of self-worth and trust, thus allowing healthy relationships in other life domains to develop and be sustained.

Dr Gloria Marsay is an educational psychologist based in Johannesburg.