Chennai: Psychologists, educationalists, parents and students blame rat race for marks, limited time on the playground, and a spurt in number of nuclear families that led to a decrease in socialisation to be the main reasons for increase in suicides.
“Earlier there was a system when counselling used to happen at home and parents had time for their kids. Most importantly, playgrounds where kids learn how to handle failure and humiliation have completely vanished. palm-sized gadgets have become the only go-to option that lead to increase in stress,” said R. Karthikeyan, a counsellor.
A study published in Indian Journal of social psychiatry recently reveals that strong attachment and integration with family served as a protective factor against suicide attempt. Findings say that higher proportions of attempters come from nuclear families or small peer groups. A principal from a reputed school at Adyar, said, “Stress management classes at schools are imperative. Examinations should not be testing only the memory and also be testing their understanding of concepts, reasoning, and skills.
Teachers and parents should make the students aware about various courses that could be of of interest to the students, emerging new career fields and other opportunities rather than motivating them to either pursue, medical, engineering and other careers of the parents’ choice.”
