The influence of children`s educational environment on their quality

The influence of children`s educational environment on their quality

Probl
Van Damme-Ostapowicz
Hig Epidemiol 2009,
K i 90(1):
wsp. The
67-71
influence of children’s educational environment on their quality of life
67
The influence of children’s educational environment
on their quality of life
Wpływ środowiska wychowywania dzieci na ich jakość życia
Katarzyna Van Damme-Ostapowicz 1/, Elżbieta Krajewska-Kułak 1/, Wojciech Kułak 2/, Cecylia Łukaszuk 1/,
Barbara Jankowiak 1/, Hanna Rolka 1/, Anna Baranowska 1/, Irena Wrońska 3/, Marek Szczepański 4/
Zakład Pielęgniarstwa Ogólnego, Uniwersytet Medyczny w Białymstoku
Klinika Rehabilitacji Dziecięcej, Uniwersytet Medyczny w Białymstoku
3/
Katedra Rozwoju Pielęgniarstwa, Uniwersytet Medyczny w Lublinie
4/
Klinika Neonatologii i Intensywnej Terapii Noworodka, Uniwersytet Medyczny w Białymstoku
1/
2/
We współczesnym świecie nie istnieje społeczeństwo nie borykające się
z problemem zapewnienia opieki dzieciom osieroconym i opuszczonym.
W związku z powyższym od lat poszukiwane są takie formy, które
zapewniłyby im optymalne warunki rozwoju.
In the contemporary world there is no society that would not strive with the
problem of providing the orphaned and abandoned children with proper
care. Therefore, for many years the society has been seeking the means
that could ensure optimum conditions for their development.
W polskiej rzeczywistości pomoc dla rodzin w trudnej sytuacji jest słabo
rozwinięta. Możliwości umieszczenia dzieci w profesjonalnych rodzinach
zastępczych są ciągle niewielkie. Pozostają jedynie placówki opiekuńcze,
w których umieszcza się dzieci w przekonaniu, że „jest to zło konieczne”,
ale jednocześnie uważa się, że placówki te muszą zastąpić niewłaściwie
funkcjonujące rodziny.
In the Polish reality, the assistance offered to families in difficult situations
has been, so far, poorly developed. The chances to place children in
professional foster families are still scarce. The remaining child care centres
are a “necessary evil”, however, these centres exist to replace improperly
functioning families.
W celu kontroli nad jakością opieki sprawowanej w takich placówkach,
w Helsińskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, w ramach programu „prawa
dziecka”, powstał projekt monitorowania domów dziecka w zakresie
przestrzegania praw wychowanków.
W ostatnim czasie najbardziej krytykowane są domy dziecka, ze względu
na znaczną liczbę wychowanków przy nielicznym i zmiennym personelu
wychowawczym, anonimowość dziecka, brak normalnych kontaktów
społecznych z otoczeniem, podporządkowanie codziennych czynności
określonym rygorom i regulaminom; nie są one w stanie nawet w przybliżeniu
odtworzyć dziecku warunków normalnie funkcjonującej rodziny.
Szczególnie dotkliwe są skutki braku indywidualnej więzi między
dzieckiem a dorosłym, co prowadzi do osamotnienia uczuciowego dziecka,
a w konsekwencji do zaburzeń w rozwoju psychicznym i fizycznym.
Ważne jest, aby Dom Dziecka obok wdrażania wychowanka do codziennych
obowiązków samoobsługowych i produktywnej pracy, kształtował szacunek,
pozytywną motywację, pożądane postawy. Powinien mieć stworzone takie
warunki, w których wychowanek może zaspokajać swoje potrzeby, a tym
samym osiągać stan pełnego zdrowia. Pełne zdrowie natomiast oznacza
zdrowie somatyczne, psychiczne, osobowe, duchowe i społeczne.
Albowiem zdrowie jest zasadniczym elementem jakości życia, ponieważ
teoretyczne podstawy jakości życia właśnie uwarunkowanej stanem zdrowia
opierają się na wielowymiarowej koncepcji zdrowia w wymiarze fizycznego,
psychicznego i społecznego funkcjonowania oraz dobrego samopoczucia.
Słowa kluczowe: środowisko wychowywania dzieci, dom dziecka, jakość
życia
To exercise control over the quality of the care available in such centres,
the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights developed a project within
the framework of the “children’s rights” programme in order to monitor
children’s homes as to their respecting the charges’ rights.
The children’s homes have recently been the most often criticised
institutions, because of great numbers of children, relatively small and
constantly changing educational personnel, anonymity of the children, lack
of normal contacts with the society, subordination of everyday activities to
specific discipline and regulations; which cannot – even roughly – provide
a child with the conditions of a normally functioning family.
The effects of no individual child-adult relationship are exceptionally painful
as they result in the emotional loneliness of the child and, consequently,
in mental and physical developmental disorders.
Therefore, besides training the children for the everyday self-care
responsibilities and productive work, it is important for the children’s homes
to teach respect, positive motivation and desirable attitudes. Children’s
homes should create such conditions, in which the children could satisfy
their needs, thus achieving complete health. Complete health means
somatic, mental, personal, spiritual and social health.
Health constitutes a fundamental element of the quality of life, as
the theoretical foundations of the quality of life are based on the
multidimensional concept of health within the aspects of physical, mental
and social functioning and well-being.
Key words: children’s educational environment, children’s home, quality
of life
© Probl Hig Epidemiol 2009, 90(1): 67-71
Adres do korespondencji / Address for correspondence
www.phie.pl
Dr n. med. Katarzyna Van Damme-Ostapowicz
Zakład Pielęgniarstwa Ogólnego UMB
ul. M. Skłodowskiej-Curie 7A, 15-096 Białystok
tel. (+48-85) 748-55-28, e-mail: [email protected]
Nadesłano: 12.01.2009
Zakwalifikowano do druku: 28.03.2009
68
Introduction
To ensure a complete and well-balanced
development, every child should be raised in a family
environment, in the atmosphere of happiness, love and
understanding [9]. “Family care is the most primeaval
form of care, both in the phylogenetic and ontogenetic
development of humans. At present, it occupies the
central and dominant position among other forms of
care, constituting their prototype. It embodies many
values important for individual and social life and, as
such, is generally irreplaceable” [10].
As the basic, and most important reference group,
a family decidedly influences the development of
views, behaviours and attitudes of its members, also
with regards to health [11].
Therefore it is true that health begins in a family
circle, as families perform all the prophylactic, caring
and nursing activities that strengthen human health
[12,13] and that the health of individuals depends, to
a high degree, on the proper family functions [14].
Discussion
The Convention on the Rights of the Child
states that the family, as a “basic unit of society and
the natural environment for the development and
interests of all its members, children in particular, (...)
should be protected sufficiently well, and supported
in order to fulfil its duties within the society” [15].
It influences the development of the child’s
personality through the whole organisation of inner
family life and the social relationships within it [16].
The situation of a child has always been and still is
a result of a series of material and cultural conditions
together with specific conditions, resulting from the
child’s individual characteristics, family relationships
and random events [17]. Among the phenomena that
influence the destabilization of the child’s own family
which is its basic life environment, consequently
leading to the most dangerous situation for a child
– the loss of family care or serious disorders in its
functioning leading to the undertaking of the caring
activities by the society – we may enumerate the
following [18]:
1. Threat to the population’s social safety, in
particular:
– unemployment, causing not only a material
threat (no means to satisfy needs), but also
violating man’s subjectivity, experienced
particularly by the youth who are starting their
life and by disabled people,
– material privation (poverty spheres), relating
to difficulties in obtaining sufficient means
to satisfy both the adults’ and the children’s
needs,
Probl Hig Epidemiol 2009, 90(1): 67-71
– lack of accommodation as a basis for
establishing a family home and achieving the
life stabilization.
2. Migration, most frequently relating to the threat
to social safety and individual freedom.
3. Intensifying social pathology, in particular:
– alcoholism, including particularly dangerous
alcoholism among children and teenagers,
– drug addiction,
– delinquency, including – in particular –
organised crime, depriving people of their sense
of security (attacks, assaults).
4. Increasing numbers of disabled people resulting
from the intensification of:
– ecological risks, influencing the emergence of
developmental disorders as early as the prenatal
period,
– diseases, particularly chronic ones, including
hardly curable or incurable diseases, (according
to the current medical knowledge),
– accidents at work, in households, particularly
in road traffic [19].
Basically, at present, it is not a problem of biological
orphanage, but more often of the social orphanage,
since only several percent of the charges in children’s
homes are natural orphans. Problems of children
incompetently or wrongly treated by their parents are
predominant. We face cases of the child neglect when
their families do not satisfy the children’s important
mental and physical needs [20].
Undoubtedly, children who were temporarily or
permanently deprived of their family environment,
including those who cannot stay with their families
for their own good, should be specially protected and
assisted by the State. Such care may mean: adoption,
placing a child in a foster family or, when necessary,
placing a child in a relevant child care institution
[21].
The children’s home, as the most common form
of institutional care for children, may be defined
as: “a care and counselling institution established
in order to provide care for children and teenagers
who have been permanently or periodically deprived
of such care in their own families, thus taking over
their functions and tasks in order to compensate for
deficiencies resulting from neglect and dysfunctions in
families from which such children or teenagers come
from”. In 2004 there were 338 care-and-counselling
institutions operating in Poland, while in 2003 their
number increased to 382 [22]. In 2002 and 2003,
only in the Podlaskie voivodeship there were 10 careand-counselling institutions [22].
Asking the question of what exactly the desired
care and counselling situation of the charges in
children’s homes consists, one generally expects the
Van Damme-Ostapowicz K i wsp. The influence of children’s educational environment on their quality of life
answer: “It consists of stabilizing and optimizing
the satisfaction of their biological and psychosociological needs, thus, on the whole, realizing their
well-being in life, and, in a system of educationally
appropriate personnel, the development of stimuli
and corresponding forms of individual activity which
induce their versatile development and train them to
perform various social roles with dignity ” [23].
The children’s home should, first of all, carry
out the following care-and-counselling activities, as
a substitute for a family:
–ensure personal safety and protect the child’s
physical and mental health,
–satisfy material needs,
–ensure conditions for learning and opportunity to
gain a profession,
–develop interests and satisfy cultural needs,
–introduce the child to social life,
–train the child to live in his/her own family [23].
On the other hand, the charges of a care-andcounselling institution have the right for [18]:
–a positive motivation to stay in the institution,
–a stabilization of the personal relationships in
the following configurations: children – children,
children – personnel,
–a real participation in shaping the life conditions
in a children’s home,
–democratic interrelationships,
–s t i mu l a t i n g i n d i v i d u a l a n d c o l l e c t i ve
perspectives,
–a joy of life and dreams,
–a personal and collective protection and safety,
–an unbiased and fair evaluation of behaviour,
–a balance of the rights and the requirements,
–entering into friendly relationships and love,
–a choice of moral ways and the responsibility for
these choices,
–forgiving mistakes and limiting punishment in
favour of incentives strengthening the positive
motivation,
–as far as possible, redressing the damages and
wrongs done willingly or unwillingly,
–respecting the secrets and privacy of his/her
personal experiences,
–strengthening the will,
–taking advantage of the conditions for learning and
assuming the socially accepted values of life.
It is a common knowledge that the institution of a
children’s home has been facing serious problems for
a long time. The economic crisis negatively influences
the services rendered by these institutions in favour
of orphaned children. Permanent shortage of money
for repairs, equipment, cleaning agents, clothes for
the charges, teaching aids and food, results in debts,
faster devastation of buildings, and involves systematic
69
deterioration of the life conditions of the charges.
There are no funds to organize trips, summer or winter
camps. Moreover, high personnel turnover becomes
a common phenomenon [4,19].
Apart from that, numerous literature reports
indicate the poor health status of children raised in
children’s homes, which influences the quality of
their lives. Incorrect physical development (body
height and weight below the standard) and a weaker
general health status were ascertained in the majority
of children. A significant percentage of such children
show the characteristics of social maladjustment.
Lacking positive patterns in their families, they
frequently manifest certain habits contradictory to
the accepted standards of social life, face difficulties
when entering into social relationships with adults
and within peer groups. The basic reasons for their
frequent learning problems lie in social neglect
and disharmonious child’s development. Younger
children, in the post-infant period and the early school
period, show disorders relating to the separation
anxiety disorder caused by unsatisfied emotional
needs. Since their birth, the children in care-andcounselling institutions do not comprehend basic
family relationships [24].
In her research, Socha-Kołodziej confirmed that
the most frequent educational problems at work in
children’s homes are as follows: children’s negative
attitude towards learning, school, teachers; disorders in
children’s behaviour: lies, hypersensitivity, vulgarisms,
avoidance of lessons, truancy, 57% of children show
aggression towards peers and others, 12% are fearful
and passive, 20% are prone to resignation and isolation
in contact with their peers, as well as the incorrect
attitudes of care-givers towards their charges [6].
A long time ago Matyjas showed, as Telka
presents [25], that teenagers who have stayed in an
institution for several years show the characteristics
of indifference, negation of values valid in social
life; their attitude towards life strikes with certain
temporariness, casualness, indifference towards the
future, mental weariness and a lack of dynamics, of
“life impetus”. These teenagers appreciate material
values, neglecting spiritual ones, wanting to „get away
and enjoy life”. Matyjas admits that typical traits
shown by the teenagers covered by her research are
as follows: aversion towards learning, aggression or
isolation from contacts, a lowered level of abstractive
and logical thinking, arrogance and consumerism
[25]. This has also been confirmed in research
conducted by other authors [26].
Telka [25] states that the research carried out
by Turos proved that the social relationships of the
charge with the external world are very narrowed,
because the charges most frequently choose to place
70
their friendships inside their care institutions, where
they feel better than at school. Among their friends,
those liked by children, we may count the following:
care-givers in a care institution (54%), peers from the
same children’s home (43.7%) and siblings in the care
institution (32%). It was also confirmed by Lis [27].
As Telka [25] quotes, Czyżewska proved that
care-givers try to create favourable conditions for the
correct physical development of children, maintenance
of health, acquisition of ability to co-exist with
peers, training children in self-care and preparation
for professional work, reducing school failures.
Nevertheless, she thinks that even assuming the
best organisation of educational work, the children’s
homes cannot ensure appropriate conditions for the
full emotional development of their charges or satisfy
their psychological needs [24].
Numerous opponents of the care institutions stress
their anonymity, poor world experiences and notions
and the child’s feeling of being lost [27]. Children’s
homes are institutions for collective education, which
poses the danger of suppressing the individualities of
their charges, as well as no opportunities to project
their own fate [28].
Probl Hig Epidemiol 2009, 90(1): 67-71
After all, children’s homes form a peculiar part
of the society that creates them. As such, they should
unquestionably be its normal and healthy part, since
it is necessary to maintain the proper quality of
children’s lives and their appropriate preparation for
self-reliance within the society [29]. Thus, their tasks
involve the creation of the following proper conditions
for the charges’ correct development: educational,
healthy and material, as well as the facilitation of
developmental and re-socialization processes [6].
It is worth emphasizing that the activities aimed at
improving the health status, which is a basic element
of the quality of life, should be undertaken in many
areas, namely: at home, in the place of residence, at
school, within peer environment etc. Health needs
of young people are conditioned by many factors, e.g.:
healthy environment, information, knowledge and
the skills necessary to maintain health conditions,
proper individual psycho-social and psycho-sexual
development, health care services, the healthpromotion and health-protection policy; healthy
lifestyle and favourable conditions for all the factors
enumerated above [30].
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