Youth Violence and Failure of Family Education
The news of violence among youth could be an early sign of failure of education in families and educational institutions. These cases cannot be generalized, but it is important to find out the problems and solutions.
In the past few days, we have been bombarded with news about a number of cases of violence perpetrated by teenagers, including physical, verbal and sexual violence, which have resulted in trauma, stigma or even death for the victims, who are generally also teenagers.
This teenage violence is often referred to as peer-to-peer violence and bullying.
Data on violence among teenagers is difficult to obtain because most of the existing research is on youth violence and children as victims, not teenagers as the perpetrators.
This is supported by Law No. 35/2014 concerning Child Protection, which has the main objective of protecting children as victims.
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Kompas.tv page, on 24 February, stated there were at least seven cases of violence committed by teenagers that went viral on social media. Men and women were both perpetrators and victims, the age of the victims was generally the same and the reasons for committing acts of violence were emotions, anger or jealousy. There was also violence committed to show domination over other individuals or groups.
The most recent news was the violence perpetrated by the son of a wealthy high-ranking official in this country. Social media not only reviews his acts of violence, but also his behavior, in which he often shows off a lifestyle of luxury, and his attitude: he shows no guilt when covered by mass media.
Teenager psychosocial: ‘Storm and stress’
In violence perpetrated by teenagers in groups, if the target is an individual, they gang up on the victim, making them helpless. If the target is a group, the two groups attack each other in brawls.
In Yogyakarta, we have heard the term klitih, namely a group of teenagers riding motorbikes carrying sharp weapons and injuring other teenagers, both individuals and groups, for no apparent reason.
News of violence between teenagers and criminal acts often makes adults shake their heads because they never think teenagers are capable of committing heinous and sadistic acts. What's wrong with our youth?
Hormonal changes leading to maturity and nascent romantic feelings for the opposite sex cause anxiety in adolescent.
Referring to the stages of psychosocial development formulated by Erik Erikson, young adults are considered teenagers at around the age of 12-18 years. At this time, they are experiencing a crisis of self-identity. Physically, they enter the stage of puberty, which makes them feel uncomfortable with the physical changes they undergo on the road to adulthood, yet mentally they are still young.
Hormonal changes leading to maturity and nascent romantic feelings for the opposite sex cause anxiety in adolescent. Additionally, changes occur in the environment, as students graduate from junior high school to senior high school and from high school to college.
This inner turmoil, described by the American child psychologist, Stanley Hall, is called a period of storm and stress, which can result in conflicts with parents and peers.
Among teenagers, acceptance and recognition of peers has a major influence on the formation of identity. If values held by peers are different from values taught by parents, teenagers potentially subscribe to new values held by their friends in order to be part of the group.
If in a peer group with noble values, adolescents are able to foster a sense of loyalty and obedience. Conversely, in the wrong group, adolescents experience confusion in their social roles (role confusion). He is not sure how to be accepted in his surroundings.
Education in the family: not negotiable
Actually, being in the wrong group does not always make teenagers join in wrong behavior if they have strong ethical and life values given to them by their parents. He was able to realize he was in the wrong place and immediately decided to get out of the group.
There is a saying that bad company can destroy good habits. And these good habits are generally instilled by parents since their children were young. Parents have many opportunities to impart the noble values of life to their children.
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Parents have a social and moral obligation to guide their children to become useful human beings by instilling life values. This is usually done before the child reaches puberty because children spend most of their time at home and only a few hours at school.
Unfortunately, not all parents carry out this noble mandate and make optimal use of these times of togetherness. The classic reasons are not having time, not realizing the importance of educating children in the family, being aware but not feeling competent or a belief that schools are the most competent entity to provide such instruction.
In fact, the period before puberty is a golden opportunity for parents to instill moral and ethical values.
Educational institution: for the sake of reputation
Parents cannot rely on schools to instill these values because the school's focus is more on equipping students with skills and knowledge.
Moreover, the education system in Indonesia is still ranking oriented. If there is violence committed by students, it is considered to have the potential to damage the reputation of the school, so students are asked to resign, a euphemism for expelling them from school. If an educational institution expels students who commit violence, the meaning of the educational goals themselves becomes unclear.
Article 31 Paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution states that every citizen has the right to education.
These cases cannot be generalized, but it is important to find out the problems and solutions.
Education itself can be taught in three forms. First, formal education in formal educational institutions. Second, nonformal education is available in organizations outside of formal educational institutions. And third, informal education, which is taught from within the family and society. Paragraph (3) of the same article states the national education system has the characteristics of increasing noble character.
The news of violence among youth that has repeatedly appeared on social media recently could be an early sign of failure of education in families and educational institutions. These cases cannot be generalized, but it is important to find out the problems and solutions.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo emphasized the need to improve the quality of Indonesian human resources in realizing the Golden Indonesia Vision 2045. Thus, the education of noble values in the family is a necessity.
EUNIKE SRI TYAS SUCI
Eunike Sri Tyas Suci
Lecturer at the Faculty of Psychology, Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia
This article was translated by Kurnia Siswo
