Community sense among children decreases sharply

    

    

Doctors newspaper online, 05.07.2019

    

        
        
        

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study

To exclude others, that is apparently normal for many children, according to a survey. For society, this can have fatal consequences.
    The solidarity community threatens to tip over.

By Anno Fricke

One in four children has experienced bullying

© pololia / stock.adobe.com

BERLIN .
    Bullying, lack of compassion, indifference. The common good orientation in
    society threatens to crumble . One third of young people between the ages of twelve and sixteen lack the sense of community. Even children between the ages of six and eleven reveal more than one fifth (22 percent) of serious social deficits when dealing with other people. This emerges from a study of the University of Bielefeld on behalf of the Bepanthen child support.

Girls are more empathetic

Differences according to sexes, the girls have done better, reported study leader Professor Holger Ziegler at the presentation of the results of the investigation in Berlin. While male adolescents whistle to 44 percent on values ​​such as community spirit, only 21 percent of girls do so.

"The data suggests that we are not dealing with a fringe phenomenon," Ziegler said. The principle of solidarity as the basis for a successful society is in danger of being overturned.

Issues such as inclusion, diversity and sustainability threaten to fall behind. To help other children or young people or to share something with them is therefore no longer self-evident. For example, 36 percent of adolescents refused to share. "Self-inflicted" was a standard response from 70 percent of respondents when confronted with problems from others. "If another child has problems and I'm not to blame, I do not care," it was then, for example.

It is therefore not surprising that "mobbing-like manifestations of behavior" occur even in childhood. A quarter of respondents said they had experience with mobbing-like situations.

For example, the children and adolescents should respond to statements such as, "It takes me when an animal is injured" or "It makes me sad when someone finds nobody to play with". 76 percent of the boys left these statements largely cold, while only 31 percent of girls remained without empathy.

Chauvinism and the depreciation of marginal groups are rampant at an early age. "We take too much account of failures in our society," was a widely-held opinion. The young people also spoke openly about the different value of population groups. 36 percent of the boys and 22 percent of the girls commented on this.

According to the study, empathy and solidarity between respondents develop independently of the socioeconomic status of their families. If one looks only at negative developments, differences were apparent. For example, 50 percent of young people from poor families are more inclined to devalue minorities. Adolescents of rich origin did so only 16 percent.

Poverty makes you harder

"Children and adolescents who grow up in a burdened environment may not know the social value system, neither can adequately participate in it nor apply it in their present and future lives," commented Bernd Siggelkow, founder of Children's and Children's Education Youth Relief Organization "Ark". For the study, 618 children and 353 adolescents were interviewed from December 2018 to February 2019.

44% of male adolescents did not care about values ​​such as sense of community. The girls were only 21 percent.

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