Emotional and Behavioural Problems of Pakistani Adolescents

Nazar Soomro and Jane Clarbour

nhs501@york.ac.uk. Department of Psychology, University of York

Background: Adolescents represent the largest portion of the Pakistani population and many display significant emotional and behavioural problems, which can have serious consequences for them and the wider society such as academic drop-out and failure, delinquency, drug abuse and unemployment.

Aim: The major aim of this study is to present the Emotional Behavioural Scale for Pakistani Adolescents (EBS-PA), a new measure of emotional and behavioural problems in Pakistani adolescents. A further aim of the study was to investigate the association of the new EBS-PA with the Urdu version of Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ).

Methods: A cross-sectional research design was used. Data were collected from two private schools in Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan. The EBS-PA and SDQ were administered to 109 Year 8 students between 13-16 years. Teachers also rated 56 of these students on the SDQ-Teacher version.

Results/Findings: The EBS-PA subscales were found to be significantly correlated with the SDQ in the expected directions. For example, the EBS-PA Social Anxiety subscale was positively associated with the SDQ emotional symptoms, whereas EBS-PA Malevolent Aggression subscale was significantly correlated with conduct problems and hyperactivity. The EBS-PA Social self-esteem subscale was strongly negatively correlated with SDQ conduct problems.

The correlations between self and teacher ratings SDQ were found to be substantial particularly for the conduct problem and prosocial behaviour subscales. The highest level of difficulties identified with the SDQ were found for the conduct problems, peer problem and emotional problems subscales in the Pakistani adolescents. 21% and 30.4% were rated as abnormal by themselves and teachers respectively.

Discussion: There is a paucity of reliable and valid indigenous questionnaires to assess emotional and behavioural problems in Pakistani adolescents (Ahmer, Faruqui & Aijaz, 2007). Thus, the new EBS-PA scales will be useful to identify children who are in the early stages of developing emotional and behavioural problems for early intervention and support.

Conclusion: A significant number of Pakistani adolescents show emotional and behavioural problems. Thus, EBS-PA will be used for screening purposes in schools as well as in clinical settings. In addition, it will also facilitate to estimate the prevalence of emotional and behavioural problems in Pakistan.

Lebanese Adolescents Post-War: the relation between war experience, resiliency, emotional intelligence and personality factors

Rana Tayara

rt526@york.ac.uk. Department of Psychology, University of York

Background: Lebanon has been experiencing conflicts (internal and external) since 1960, and Lebanese from all regions have been affected by them through either exposure to shelling or combat, displacement, bereavement, emigration, separation from parents, or by being witness or even victims of violent acts (Macksoud & Aber, 1996).

Aim of the Study: The literature studying Lebanese adolescents’ psychological, social and emotional well-being is minimal or limited to one region. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the relation between exposure to war violence and emotional intelligence, personality and resiliency among Lebanese adolescents from the South of Lebanon an area that has been mostly affected by the July 2006 war due to its borders with Israel.

Methods: The participants comprised an opportunity sample of 137 middle school students from South Lebanon that have been directly affected by the Lebanese-Israeli war in 2006. The pupils were aged between 13 to 18-years old from grades 8 to 12 (mean age= 15.37 years; SD=1.24). Students were asked to complete 5 scales, the BarOn Emotional Quotient Inventory: YV (Bar-On & Parker, 2000), the Resiliency Scales for Children and Adolescents (Prince-Embury, 2008), the Big Five Inventory (John & Srivastava, 1999), the Trauma Screening Questionnaire (Brewin, Rose, Andrews, Green, Tata, McEvedy, Turner & Foa, 2002) and a Demographic Survey. All scales were translated into Arabic and back translated.

Results: On a sample of 137 Lebanese adolescents, 93.6% of the adolescents were exposed to shelling during the July war 2006, 12.5% were exposed to combat, 61.8 % experienced displacement, 5.9% experienced bereavement, 12.5% were separated from their parents, 3.7% were injured and 4.4% carried weapons. Resiliency negatively correlated with place of living during the war and the neuroticism scale on the BFI (r = -.195 and r = -.331, p<.01 respectively). Resiliency positively correlated with the Conscientiousness Scale on the BFI, r = .255, p<.01. Trauma Screening Questionnaire positively correlated strongest with shelling and separation from parents r = .279 and .178 with p<.01 respectively. Scores on the TSQ negatively correlated with religious affiliation, r = -.256, p<.01. In contrast with our hypothesis, emotional intelligence did not correlate with resiliency, trauma or war experiences.

Discussion: The current study evaluated hypotheses about the relationship between resiliency, personality and emotional intelligence to war experiences. Results were consistent with the study hypotheses in that the above mentioned moderators demonstrated a meaningful relationship with war experience and also between themselves as resiliency correlated highly with scales on the BFI and the TSQ as also reported by Sibai, Tohme, Beydoun, Kanaan, Sibai (2008) and Kashdan, Julian, Merritt & Uswatte (2005). Student who were living in a highly affected war zone scored higher on the resiliency scale showing that experience of stress due to war in some cases increase resistance to more minor stresses such as the stress that comes with being socially accepted at school (Rutter, 1985).

In contrast with our hypotheses, emotional intelligence did not correlate with resiliency, trauma or war experiences. Different areas in Lebanon have been affected differently by the war and therefore in our future study we are looking at comparing between those areas.

Conclusion: The aim of the current study was to examine the relation between war experience and moderators such as emotional intelligence, personality factors and resiliency in a sample of 137 Lebanese adolescents from the South of Lebanon that have been affected by the July 2006 war. Although a strong relation has been found between resiliency, trauma and place of residence during the war including experiencing shelling and combat and being separated from care takers further research is needed on a wider geographical scale.

References:

BarOn, R., & Parker, J. (2000). BarOn Emotional Inventory: Youth version. Multi-Health Inc. Canada.

Brewin, C., Rose, S., Andrews, B., Green, J., Tata, P., McEvedy, C., Turner, S. & Foa, E. (2002) Brief Screening Instrument for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry 181, 158-162.

John, O. P., & Srivastava, S. (1999). The Big Five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and theoretical perspectives. In L. A. Pervin & O. P. John (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (2nd ed., pp. 102-138). New York: Guilford.

Kashdan, T. B., Julian, T., Merritt, K., & Uswatte, G. (2005). Social anxiety and posttraumatic stress in combat veterans: relations to well-being and human strengths. Behavior Research and Therapy. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44(4), 561-583.

Macksoud, M. S. & Aber, J. L. (1996). The war experience and psychosocial development of children in Lebanon. Child Development, 67, 70-88.

Prince-Embury, S. (2008). The Resiliency Scales for Children and Adolescents, Psychological Symptoms and Clinical Status in Adolescents. The Canadian Journal of School Psychology. 23(1), 41-56.

Rutter M. (1985). Resilience in the face of adversity. Protective factors and resistance to psychiatric disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry, 147, 598–611.

Sibai T., Tohme R. A., Beydoun H. A., Kanaan N., & Sibai A. M. (2008). Violent behavior among adolescents in post-war Lebanon: the role of personal factors and correlation with other problem behaviors. Journal of Public Health, 1, 39-46.