Antisocial Behaviours that are More Prevalent Among Children with Complicated Grief in Selected Public Primary Schools in Nairobi County, Kenya
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70619/vol4iss5pp18-32Keywords:
Antisocial behaviours, Complicated grief, Children, loved oneAbstract
The inability of children to comprehend and process death due to factors like chronological age, attachment of the child to the deceased, nature of death, and family support, might lead to delayed or prolonged grief processes resulting in complicated grief (CG). Complicated grief in a child’s life can affect his/her social and cognitive functioning manifesting in antisocial behaviours. This study aimed to find out antisocial behaviours that are more prevalent among children with complicated grief in selected public primary schools in Nairobi County, Kenya. This study was guided by Attachment Theory. Multistage sampling, purposive sampling, inclusion, and exclusion criteria were used to select 259 pupils aged 10-13 years who had lost a loved one in the last year. Purposive sampling was also used to select 22 class teachers of the bereaved pupils who participated in the study. The study employed a convergent mixed-method design. Data was collected through self-administered questionnaires (SDQ, ICG, and STAB) and interviews. Quantitative data was analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS Version 25.0. The findings indicated that the most prevalent antisocial behaviour was social aggression with an aggregated mean of 3.01. The findings indicated that antisocial behaviours were common among children with CG as well as those without. The most prevalent antisocial behaviour among children who had lost a loved one was social aggression. The study recommends that the Ministry of Education should introduce a school-based counseling program incorporating grief intervention techniques and recommend trained counselors who do not double up as teachers to be school counselors to negate dual relationships. Public Primary schools are encouraged to develop several training programs to help teachers understand how to intervene and foster resiliency in their students who have experienced grief.
References
Adesanya, D. O., Johnson, J. & Galanter, C. A. (2022). Assessing and treating aggression in children and adolescents. Pediatric Medicene,5(18),1-22. http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/pm-20-109
Ainsworth, M., Blehar, M., Waters, E., & Wall, (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the Strange Situation. Lawrence Erlbaum.
Ainsworth, M., Blehar, M., Waters, E., & Wall, (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the Strange Situation. Lawrence Erlbaum.
Akerman, R. & Statham, J. (2014). Bereavement in childhood: The impact on psychological and educational outcomes and the effectiveness of support services. Childhood Wellbeing Research Centre.
Bartholomew, K. (1990). Avoidance of intimacy: An attachment perspective. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 7(2), 147-178. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407590072001
Bowlby, J. (1988). A secure base: Parent-child attachment and healthy human development. Basic Books.
Bowlby, J. (1982). Attachment and loss: Retrospect and prospect. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 52(4), 664–678. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-0025.1982.tb01456.x
Bretherton, I. (1992). The origins of attachment theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. Developmental Psychology, 28(5), 759–775. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.28.5.759
Burns, M., Griese, B., King, S., & Talmi, A. (2020). Childhood bereavement: Understanding prevalence and related adversity in the United States. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 90(4), 391–405. https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000442
Bylund-Grenklo, T., Birgisdóttir, D., Beenaert, K., Nyberg, T., Skokic, V., Kristensson, J., . . . Kreicbergs, U. (2021). Acute and long-term grief reactions and experiences in parentally cancer-bereaved teenagers. BMC Palliative Care, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12904-021-00758-7
Calkins, S.D. & Keane, S.P. (2009). Developmental origins of early antisocial behavior. Development and Psychopathology,21(4),1095-109. https://doi.org/10.1017/S095457940999006X
Clark, A. (2021). A short guide to antisocial behaviour complaints(No.9125). https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-9125/CBP-9125.pdf
Dishion, T.J., & Patterson, G.R. (2015) The Development and Ecology of Antisocial Behavior in Children and Adolescents. In: Cicchetti D, Cohen DJ, editors. Developmental Psychopathology,3, 503-541. New York, NY: Wiley & Sons.
Dudge, K. A. (1991). The structure and functioning of reactive and proactive aggression. In D.J. Pepler & K.H. Rubin(Eds), The Development and Treatment of Childhood Aggression(pp.201-218). Lawrence Erlbaum.
Elliott, D. S., Huizinga, D., & Ageton, S. S. (1985). Explaining delinquency and drug use.
Sage Publications.
Ener, L., & Ray, D. C. (2018). Exploring characteristics of children presenting to counseling for grief and loss. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 27(3), 860–871. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-017-0939-6
Fear, M. R. (2017). Attachment theory. Working towards learned security. Karnac Books Ltd.
Ferow, A. (2019). Childhood Grief and Loss. European Journal of Educational Sciences. 1–13. https://doi.org/10.19044/ejes.s.v6a1
Futh, A., O’Connor, T., G., Matias, C., Green, J., Scott, S. (2008). Attachment narratives and
behavior and emotional symptoms in an ethnically diverse, at-risk sample. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry,47(6),709–718. https://doi.org/10.1097/CHI.0b013e31816bff65
Gaik, L. P., Abdullah, M. C., Elias, H., & Uli, J. (2010). Development of antisocial behaviour. In Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences,7. 383–388. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.10.052
Greenberg, M. (1999). Attachment and psychopathology in childhood. In: J, Cassidy & P.R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research and clinical Applications (pp. 469–96). Guilford Press.
Hashmani, T., & Jonason, K, P. (2017). Antisocial behavior. In: T, Shackelford, V, Weekes-Shackelford (Eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science,1-7. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6
Høeg, B. L., Appel, C. W., Von Heymann-Horan, A. B., Frederiksen, K., Johansen, C., Bøge, P., Dencker, A., Dyregrov, A., Mathiesen, B. B., & Bidstrup, P. E. (2017). Maladaptive coping in adults who have experienced early parental loss and grief counseling. Journal of Health Psychology, 22(14), 1851–1861. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105316638550
Hill, J. & Moughan, B. (Eds.). (2004). Conduct disorder in childhood and adolescence. Cambridge University Press.
Holmes, J. (1993). John Bowlby and Attachment Theory. Routledge.
Holmes, J. (2014). John Bowlby and Attachment Theory (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Hutchings, J., Williams, M., & Leijten, P. (2023). Attachment, behavior problems and
Interventions. Frontiers in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2.
https://doi.org/10.3389/frcha.2023.1156407
Huynh, H. V., Limber, S. P., Gray, C. L., Thompson, M. P., Wasonga, A. I., Vann, V., Itemba, D., Eticha, M., Madan, I., & Whetten, K. (2019). Factors affecting the psychosocial well-being of orphan and separated children in five low- and middle-income countries: Which is more important, quality of care or care setting? PLoS ONE, 14(6), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0218100
Kennedy, J., & Kennedy, C. (2004). Attachment theory: Implications for school psychology. Psychology in the Schools, 41(2), 247-259. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.10153 Population by county and Sub-county (1).
Khaliq, A. & Rasool, S. (2019). Causes of student's antisocial behaviors at secondary level school. The Spark,4(1),116-148.
Kliem, S., Mößle, T. & Rehbein, F. ( 2014). Longitudinal effects of violent media usage on
Aggressive behavior—the significance of empathy. Societies, 4(1):105-124. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc4010105
Matas, L., Arend, R., & Sroufe, L. (1978). Continuity of adaptation in the second year: the
Relationship between quality of attachment and later competence. Child Development, 49(3), 547. https://doi.org/10.2307/1128221
McCoyd, M., L., J., & Walter, A. C. (2016). Grief and loss across the lifespan (2nd ed.). Springer Publishing Company.
Mwendo. (2021). Kenya making well-informed efforts to nurture disadvantaged orphans. USAID.
Ngesa, M. O., Tuikong, S., & Ongaro, K. (2020a). Prevalence and correlates of complicated grief among parentally bereaved children in Siaya County, Kenya. African Journal of Clinical Psychology, 02(03).
O'Donnell, K., Dorsey, S., Gong, W., Sotermann, J., Whetten, R., Cohen, J. A., . . . Whetten, K. (2014). Treating unresolved grief and posttraumatic stress symptoms. Journal of Trauma and Stress, 27(6). https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.21970
Otto, C., Kaman, A., Erhart, M., Barkmann, C., Klasen, F., Schlack, R., & Ravens-Sieberer, U. (2021). Risk and resource factors of antisocial behaviour in children and adolescents: results of the longitudinal BELLA study. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 15(61), 2-14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13034-021-00412-3
Piotrowska, P. J., Stride, C. B., Maughan, B., & Rowe, R. (2019). Mechanisms underlying social gradients in child and adolescent antisocial behaviour. SSM-Population Health, 7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2019.100353
Revet, A., Laifer, L., Raynaud, JP. (2018). Grief reactions in children and adolescents. In: E, Bui (eds) Clinical Handbook of Bereavement and Grief Reactions. Current Clinical Psychiatry. Humana Press, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65241-2_4
Santos, S. W., Holanda, C. L., Meneses, O. G., Luengo, A. M., & Gomez-Fraguela, A. J. (2019). Antisocial behaviour: A unidimensional or multidimensional construct? Avances En Psicologia Latinoamericana, 37(1), 13–27. https://doi.org/10.12804/revistas.urosario.edu.co/apl/a.5105
Waller, R., Dotterer, H. L., Murray, L., Maxwell, A. M., & Hyde, L. W. (2017). White-matter tract abnormalities and antisocial behavior: A systematic review of diffusion tensor imaging studies across development. NeuroImage: Clinical, 14, 201–215. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2017.01.014
Therivel, J., & McLuckey, L. (2018). Quick Lesson About Grief in Children. Cinahl Information Systems.
Thurman, R. T., Taylor, T., Luckett, B., Spyrelis, A., Nice, J. (2017). Complicated Grief and Caregiving Correlates among Bereaved Adolescent Girls in South Africa,62,82-86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2017.11.009
Sroufe, L. A., Carlson, E., Levy, A., & Egeland, B. (1999).Implications of attachment theory for developmental psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 11, 1– 13.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Priscillah Ndunge Omucheni, Margaret Mwenje, Ruth Kamunyu
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
