Category: Disorders

Definition of Withdrawal and its Symptoms

We talk about withdrawal when a child or young person in society is too calm, quiet, reluctant to socialize with his peers, and when he finds himself among them, he is too shy and incompetent. Such a child usually has no permanent friends, he prefers to be alone; when he joins other children’s play, he soon abandons it and is dissatisfied with it. It is difficult to persuade him to go to society, he does not know how to create close contact with his friends and often prefers to move in the company of adults. Or he hangs out with much younger children to whom he acts not as a companion but as a protector or commander. Such a child is too imaginative and reads a lot.

Gender Differences in Withdrawal

Withdrawal is a symptom by which a young person expresses his insecurity in front of his peers and distrust in them. It is a common side effect of cowardice. It is again more common in timid boys than in timid girls. This confirms our assumption that timidity and withdrawal occur in male children with greater intensity than in female children. But girls, as we have already observed, are more often timid and withdrawn than boys. The withdrawal of female children intensifies even more on the eve of puberty and in its onset. Probably this is at least partly in line with their innate psychic constitution. When boys, who by nature are probably more prone to daring behavior than girls, still develop cowardice, then there are probably deeper reasons for that. We assume that a boy must, on average, be exposed to more severe injuries to his emotional life than a girl in order to become timid, and then it is to a greater extent. Therefore, in addition to cowardice, other forms of passive behavioral disorders, such as withdrawal, incompetence, excessive shyness, lack of independence, etc., also occur more often.

Causes of Withdrawal in Children and Youth

We have seen that in male children, spoilage contributes more to their timidity than in female children. And pampering, ie egocentrism, maladaptation and hypersensitivity to one’s person increase the child’s withdrawal because they make it difficult for him to create natural social contact with his peers. But among the withdrawn children and youth, not all are equally whispered in every environment in which they hope. It is the spoiled children who often do not get along with their friends, at school, on the playground, wherever they must first affirm themselves with something in order to be noticed, to be accepted as full members of a collective. But such a child is sometimes quite different while in the family circle. There, he used to be the center of everyone’s attention, to give in and be served. That is why in that environment he allows himself to be arrogant and aggressive; he defies his parents, while in front of the teacher he is “less than a poppy seed”, he annoys and beats his brothers, and outside the house he does not dare to oppose his weaker peer.

Various real or only imaginary defects in the appearance of a young man become a particularly common cause of withdrawal in puberty and adolescence. This withdrawal, shyness and whispering are most pronounced in relation to persons of the opposite sex. This is due to the fact that in those years young people carry a particularly strong need for affirmation of their personality, especially in the sexual field, which is becoming a new and especially attractive area of ​​self-esteem. That is why both a girl and a boy who do not feel full in their sexuality are very prone to shut themselves in, so they become inaccessible, distrustful, shaky and grumpy.

Withdrawal occurs even when parents keep the child constantly with them, do not give him the opportunity to practice in creating social contact with his peers. Then the child at a young age clings tightly to the mother’s lap and does not dare to separate from her. Later, such a young person stays away from his peers, does not know how to get involved in their society, does not participate in their endeavors, remains lonely at school, in a sports club, on a field trip and dancing. With his withdrawal, he wants to defend himself from possible troubles, failures and unforeseen difficulties in the company of his peers. She is afraid of that society and does not trust him because she has not had the opportunity to get to know him better, adapt to him and gain security in him.

When a young man socializes predominantly with adults, he develops into an old man. Withdrawal is a regular feature of this type of behavioral child.

Emotionally neglected and loveless children are also often withdrawn. The cold treatment with them over a number of years directly damaged their sociality, deprived them of motivation to cooperate with other people, prevented the development of social feelings in them. Then withdrawal is an expression of their self-sufficiency that can grow to complete asociality.

There are cases when, despite the child’s extreme withdrawal and loneliness, negative environmental factors that would be sufficiently responsible for the isolation of the young person cannot be detected. In such a case, a certain constitutional disposition of the child should be assumed for isolation, ie for insufficiently emotional connection with other people. These are children who carry elements of the so-called schizotymic personalities.

Retired children, especially those who show strong incompetence among other children, often fall victim to their peers. Towards an unruly child, peers usually take an attitude of underestimation, ridicule, and aggression. Then they tease him, beat him, drive him out of their company if he tries to join them. This, of course, intensifies the timidity and withdrawal of an already timid child. That is why it sometimes seeks the company of small, much younger children who cannot compete with it in anything. In this way, the restless child tries to create a compromise between his natural aspiration for society and his emotional restraint. But such an attempt to resolve the conflict cannot always satisfy him. However, a child cannot regret being rejected by his peers, so he sometimes takes revenge on his little friends for this failure, terrorizes them and abuses them in various ways.

Physical and Mental Health Issues

When we have a withdrawn and too calm child in front of us, we should first think about whether it is an insidious physical illness that undermines health and is reflected in mental functions. Anemic, severely malnourished, rickets, and other sickly children are often withdrawn. Then one should first repair their physical condition, and only then think about correcting educational procedures.

A mentally underdeveloped child often becomes withdrawn if he is constantly exposed to competition with peers who are more capable than him. This happens to an intellectually weaker child who is forced to attend regular school. There he experiences constant failures, less and less believes that he can keep up with his friends, so he leaves the cooperation with them and retreats into himself and into a passive attitude

towards work. Many deaf children react similarly until their deficiency is noticed, so they are not subjected to rehabilitation, ie an adequate way of schooling.

Children who suffer from various physical disabilities or are “stigmatized” by a functional disorder, such as stuttering, in many cases also become withdrawn. They do not believe that they can achieve recognition among their peers, they consider themselves among them less valuable and immature in their endeavors and successes, so they withdraw from contact with them. Such an attitude towards oneself is most supported by a wrong upbringing that has failed to encourage the young man enough to successfully compensate for his physical deficiency.

Remediation of Withdrawal

In the elimination of children’s withdrawal, loneliness and incompetence, the same methods should be used as in the remediation of cowardice. This is because in the treatment of mental disorders there is no benefit or success in suppressing certain symptoms; the disease should always be treated. Therefore, it makes no sense to fight against timidity, withdrawal or any other individual difficulties in the mental life. The child’s whole personality and the causes of the disorder should always be addressed. And the same causes, the same negative environmental factors can cause many and very different disease changes in a child’s behavior.

Non-social children should be gradually introduced into the company of peers, first into small ones and then into larger ones. Kindergartens, playgrounds, kindergartens, schools, Red Cross youth activists, a pioneer organization and more can help here. A timid child should be exposed carefully and gradually, but as often as possible, to those situations that he is most afraid of. Here we must reckon with resistance, and perhaps with increased anxiety. But the educator should ignore possible new forms of fear, because they are transient in nature and a sign of the child’s resistance against any new burden. It is the task of the educator to pretend to be clumsy, to remain consistent, not to get upset and not to lose patience. Persistent encouragement, independence and socialization of the child sooner or later always shows positive results.

Cowardice and Timidity

Among our respondents, cowardice occurs equally often in both sexes at the beginning of schooling. During further development, this disorder is somewhat lost in boys, remains equally common in girls, or even shows a tendency to become more common as girls get older. Therefore, the difference between the sexes in the frequency of timidity is greater the older the children.

The gradual decline in cowardice in older boys is obviously a consequence of their increasingly successful adaptation to the environment as they get older. Girls are by nature more adaptable than boys, and yet their adaptation is less successful and they are less and less successful as they get older. The reason for this seems to be the upbringing of female children which is still more conservative and stricter than the upbringing of boys.

As boys are given more freedom and more opportunities for initiative as they get older, girls are more constrained and hampered in the free affirmation of personality as they get closer to puberty. Probably because of this, their timidity does not subside, but becomes even more intense.

Cowardice is a direct expression of low self-esteem; and nothing deprives man so much of confidence in himself as the impossibility of experiencing his individuality.

Withdrawal and Distraction

Withdrawal is manifested in boys to the same extent until the onset of puberty. From that moment on, their withdrawal shows a tendency to increase. In girls, we notice such an increase in withdrawal earlier, from the age of ten. This phenomenon can be understood as a psychological reflection of physiological changes in early puberty.

Distraction of children of both sexes shows a slight increase. It is more common in boys than in girls.

Non-independence and Negligence

Non-independence is equally common in all children at all ages. Apparently, with the growth of the child, the negative educational influences that make him dependent do not subside. That is why it does not get rid of that property, even if it becomes more mature and experienced.

It is a well-known fact that girls prefer to learn than boys, that they are more ambitious and conscientious in solving tasks at school. This is also shown by our data. The incidence of negligence rises sharply in older boys, both in the city and in the countryside; in girls it shows quite a slight increase.

Disruption of Classes and Aggression

The older the children, the greater the demands of the school. Girls adapt to these requirements relatively easily, so their ambition in the upper grades only slightly subsides. Boys react much more sensitively to higher loads. This is where their greater aggressiveness, defiance and at the same time less interest in learning are manifested.

Perhaps the significant difference between male and female children in the frequency of negligence in older ages is also contributed by the more frequent pampering of male children. On average, boys have fewer work habits than their peers, are more comfortable, are more accustomed to being served, are less accustomed to overcoming difficulties, are reluctant to take responsibility, are less persistent in their work, and have a weaker sense of commitment to the environment.

All this can be the reason that with age, ie with the difficulty of the tasks, their negligence grows sharply, as well as the tendency to avoid classes.

And the frequency of disruption of classes is different in boys and girls with increasing age. While the female curve oscillates slightly around the same values, the male curve rises sharply. We can interpret this phenomenon in the same way as the course of the frequency of negligence and avoidance of teaching. In no behavior disorder are the differences between the sexes as great as here.

This becomes understandable when one considers that the disruption of teaching is an expression of those personality traits by which boys differ most from girls. They are much more likely to be restless, impulsive and undisciplined. Girls are by nature more calm-minded, their reactions are softer and milder, they accept school discipline more easily.

Irritability and Hypersensitivity

Greater ambition of girls, even when it is excessive and turns into unhealthy behavior, is manifested among our respondents. While in boys greed is equally weak throughout schooling as an expression of their average low interest in learning, in girls at the beginning of schooling they encounter a slightly larger number of overly ambitious children. But in the further course of schooling, as early as the age of 10, their greed declines and is soon equated with that of a boy.

Boys prefer to defy educators than girls. The advanced age of the child brings more and more conflicts with educators, and even more aggression.

Irritability is a typical and very general symptom of neuroticism that speaks to a child’s reduced frustration tolerance. Because boys are more prone than girls to neurotic behavior, they are always ahead of their girlfriends in the frequency of irritability. But the frequency of this neurotic symptom increases in parallel in both sexes.

Old-fashioned Behavior and Lying

Going to school puts a child’s ability to adapt in a difficult temptation. Probably a source of a sudden increase in hypersensitivity reactions in the first years of schooling. But a longer stay in school enables the child to more and more successfully adapt to the school environment, so he reacts with less and less sensitivity to greater or lesser injuries of his personality to which he is exposed in the class collective.

The school supports too serious behavior of an old child, so it does not give in when the child becomes more mature. But advances in age and new life burdens do not act as a direct factor in the emergence of old rule. That is why it does not become more frequent with the advanced age of the child. There is no significant difference in the occurrence of old-fashioned behavior between male and female children.

Lying is becoming more common as children get older. An increase in children’s life experiences seems to contribute to this, along with their maturation.

Childhood Neuroses and Stuttering

All typical childhood neuroses subside somewhat with the approach of puberty. It also happens with stuttering. In puberty itself, until it grows into adolescence, stuttering again becomes a somewhat more common occurrence, probably because the child sometimes finds himself in a mental crisis. It can cause a recurrence of neurosis for a while, which had already subsided in previous years, and even disappeared completely.

Beating and Speech Formation

With advancing age, those cases of beating that are an expression of a milder retardation of the child in intellectual development also disappear. In older childhood, only those cases that are the result of impaired hearing or severe mental retardation lag behind. The higher frequency of beatings in male children is a consequence of the somewhat weaker disposition of boys for proper speech formation.

Certain forms of behavioral disorders occur in our subjects with very different frequencies. Sorted by frequency in descending order appear in this order:

Boys:

• Negligence
• Reticence
• Non-independence
• Distraction
• Interference with teaching
• Timidity
• Aggressiveness
• Irritability
• Arrogance
• Hypersensitivity
• Avoidance of teaching
• Lying
• Greed
• Theft

Girls:

• Reticence
• Non-independence
• Timidity
• Negligence
• Distraction
• Hypersensitivity
• Irritability
• Greed
• Lying
• Interference with teaching
• Aggressiveness
• Arrogance
• Avoidance of teaching
• Theft

Frequencies and Gender Differences in Common Behavioral Disorders Among School Children

Among the most common behavioral disorders of school children, both in the city and in the countryside, we therefore find negligence, lack of independence, withdrawal, and distraction; in boys it is also disturbed by teaching, and in girls it is timidity. Aggressive forms of behavioral disorders appear to be more common in boys and passive forms in girls.

Thus, male children in our material are more likely to encounter disruption of classes, school avoidance, negligence in work, distraction, aggression, irritability, insolence, lying and theft. This is equally true for urban and rural children. Girls are more likely to show withdrawal, timidity, hypersensitivity and excessive seriousness.

There is no difference between rural and urban children in this either. Male children are known to be more impulsive, aggressive and less adaptable than female children. It is therefore likely that these gender differences in forms of behavioral disorder are of a constitutional nature.

The Role of Upbringing in Non-Independence as an Essential Personality Disorder in Children

However, the essential personality disorder that underlies many other behavioral disorders in children – their lack of independence – occurs equally often in both boys and girls. This means that innate properties have no share. Non-independence is a consequence of the wrong upbringing of a child, and its equal frequency in both sexes indicates to us that both female and male children are equally exposed to wrong actions and the same educational misconceptions by their educators.

The results of our survey confirm another well-known fact: a higher incidence of speech disorders, i.e. stuttering and beating in male children.

According to the intensity of behavioral disorders, children with mental disorders can be classified into three groups:

1. Children with mild mental symptoms
2. Children with moderate mental symptoms
3. Children with more severe mental symptoms

The first group includes children with minor behavioral disorders that can be easily corrected. These are disorders in the psychological development of the child that can be removed by proper pedagogical procedure in school and constructive cooperation of teachers with parents in the education of students.

The second group consists of children with already clearly expressed deformations in personality formation, although their mental disorders are still relatively mild. They can be completely rehabilitated, but parents and teachers need the professional help of a psychohygiene counseling center.

The third group includes children who are more severely disturbed in their attitude of personality in order to eliminate the deformations of the young psyche. Children from this group need intensive and long-term psychotherapy, and their parents and teachers should maintain constant contact with the counseling center for psychohygiene, so that professionals have the opportunity to constantly influence the psychiatric and social care system.

Conclusion

One third of our respondents go to the first group of children with mental disorders. This means that one third of primary school students need professional help from teachers in adapting to the school and family environment. Every fourth to fifth student, ie every sixth to seventh student needs, in addition to the increased educational care of teachers, also the professional help of the psychohygiene counseling center. Approximately 2-7% of our respondents should be understood as serious mental patients, who need abundant and long-term help to develop into slightly healthy individuals.

Children are more likely to show behavioral disorders as they get older. In the prepubertal period, at the ages of 11 and 12 years, we observe a tendency to decrease the frequency of mental disorders; from the age of 13 it grows again. We see this phenomenon in both sexes; the frequency curves of behavioral disorders in boys and girls generally run parallel.

There are several possibilities to interpret the increase in the frequency of mental disorders with the age of the child:

• The child encounters the more life burdens the older he is, so he has more and more opportunities to show his insufficient mental maturity
• The older the child, the longer he is affected by wrong upbringing procedures, so the more negative personality traits are fixed in him.
• The older the child, the more his conflict with the environment intensifies, so the behavior of his negative attitude towards the environment becomes more and more pronounced.

It is most likely that all of these factors act at the same time.

Behavior of Only Children in Urban and Rural Areas

Among our respondents in the city, there are 17% girls and the same number of boys who are the only children in the family. In the group of rural children we examined, we found fewer children: 16% among boys and 13% among girls. The only children in the city show fewer behavioral disorders than children who have siblings. We also noticed this phenomenon among rural children.

But in the city, the difference between singles and non-singles is statistically significant, and not in the countryside. These data show that only children are not more exposed to the wrong upbringing and deformation of their personality than children who have siblings, as is often thought.

Differences in Family Size between Urban and Rural Areas

A considerable number of our respondents live in relatively large families, where parents have three or more children. There are more families in the countryside (approximately 51%) with three or more children; there are fewer such families in the city (approximately 43%). This means that our families are still relatively large, and in the countryside they are on average larger than in the city.

Effects of Siblings on Children’s Mental Health in Urban and Rural Areas

When a city child lives in a large family, with two or more siblings, then he or she is more likely to exhibit behavioral disorders than only children, that is, those who have only one sibling. The difference in the frequency of mental disorders in both groups of respondents is statistically significant. Among rural children, we also observe a slightly greater tendency to behavioral disorder when the child comes from a large family than when he has only one brother or is single. But the difference is not statistically significant.

These data lead us to the conclusion that in a city, children with many siblings develop mentally worse than children who have only one sibling or are the only ones. In the countryside it is not so; there, mental disorders occur equally frequently in children from large as well as from small families.

Birth Status and Mental Health in Children

In the group of children we surveyed, we encountered a number of illegitimate children. These children are significantly more likely to exhibit mental disorders than children born in wedlock.

Observing Gender Differences in Mental Disorders Among Children

In both urban and rural areas, we have observed that boys are more likely to have behavioral disorders than girls. This gender difference is consistent with what we have seen in our work at counseling and psycho-hygiene dispensaries for children and youth. However, the cause of this difference is not yet clear.

Three Theoretical Explanations for the Gender Difference

There are three potential explanations for the gender difference in mental disorders:

1. Boys are naturally more predisposed to mental disorders, particularly due to negative psychological influences such as psychological stress
2. Male children are more exposed to negative environmental factors that can affect their personality development compared to females
3. Boys have a stronger disposition for mental disorders and are more exposed to negative environmental factors, leading to an increased likelihood of developing mental disorders

Evidence for Greater Mental Sensitivity in Males

While there is no conclusive evidence for any of these settings, there are facts that support the notion that males have lower biological resistance than females. For example, male embryos have a higher rate of miscarriage, and male infants have a higher mortality rate. Additionally, men are more likely to suffer from degenerative diseases.

There is no reason to assume that this lower life resistance does not extend to mental functions. Observations from everyday practice also support this idea. For example, boys are more likely to have neurotic disorders and exhibit more intense and gross forms of behavioral disorders. Boys are also more likely to be delinquent and suffer from alcoholism or psychosis.

Examples of Greater Mental Sensitivity in Male Children and Youth

According to research cited in the “Handbook of Child Psychology” by L. Carmichael, behavioral disorders are more common in boys than girls. However, the criteria for diagnosing mental disorders may be skewed towards more passive behaviors in girls, such as timidity or withdrawal, rather than active forms of psychological disturbance.

Comparing Symptomatic Behaviors of Boys and Girls

While girls may be diagnosed with different forms of mental disorders than boys, it does not mean that they are necessarily less mentally resilient. Aggressive behavior is more commonly seen in boys than girls, and it is a clear sign of psychological distress.

The Influence of Environment on the Gender Difference

Authors such as Simpson, Mott, Hayward, and Meltzer argue that there are significant differences in how educators treat male and female children, with females receiving better treatment on average. Our experiences in counseling centers also support this belief, with boys often experiencing extreme forms of educational mistakes such as excessive indulgence or excessive strictness.

Educators and Their Treatment of Children by Gender

The prevailing opinion among authors is that there are significant differences in the treatment of male and female children, with educators more likely to treat females properly. This belief is represented by L. M. Terman and L. E. Tyler in Carmichael’s handbook.

Counseling and Dispensaries for Psycho-Hygiene of Children and Youth

Our experiences in counseling centers for psycho-hygiene of children and youth suggest that boys are more likely to experience gross forms of educational mistakes, leading to a higher likelihood of mental disorders. However, it is important to note that these observations are based on a selected group of children and may not apply to the entire population.

Conclusion: Limitations of Observations and Need for Further Research

While our observations suggest that there is a gender difference in mental disorders among children, the cause of this difference is not yet clear. Further research is needed to determine the factors contributing to the gender difference and how best to address them.

From the data on the marriage of the parents of our respondents, we took into consideration the problem of divorce of the parental marriage and its impact on the mental life of the child. Children of divorced parents of both sexes more often suffer from mental disorders than children whose parents remained married together.

The Role of Marital Conflicts in Child Psychopathology

Divorce is just the final event in a long series of marital disagreements. What damages the child’s psyche in such a situation are precisely these quarrels between the parents, and not their separation. There are, of course, many failed marriages with those parents who stay together.

Divorces are usually only those marriages in which the intensity of the conflict has exceeded a certain limit of tolerance. That is why they especially damaged the children born in them. This is probably the reason why children from divorced marriages exhibit more mental disorders than children of parents who have stayed together, although they often disagree.

The Impact of Step-Parenting on Children’s Mental Health

When the parents of our respondents divorced, so the parent with whom the child established a new marriage, the children again suffer more from mental disorders than those who live with both parents. The high frequency of mental disorders in children who found themselves with their stepfather or stepmother after the divorce of the parental marriage could be interpreted in several ways:

The new marriage of one parent is no better than the previous one, so the child is still affected by marital disputes as a negative educational factor and supports his mental disorders;

• The previous marriage of the parents has damaged the young person so much that the new marriage finds it difficult to correct his development, even when it is relatively settled;
• Parents who treated each other in such a negative way that they had to divorce are often so sick that they do not know how to be good educators of their children in any situation;
• The child finds it difficult to adjust to the replacement for one parent, ie stepfather or stepmother;
• The stepfather or stepmother does not accept the role of substitute for the parent and does not establish a positive emotional relationship with the child.

Among our respondents in the city of stepfathers, there are 1% boys and the same number of girls. Psychological disorders occur more often in these children than in children without a stepfather. The difference in the incidence of mental disorders in children with stepfather and without stepfather is statistically significant.

Factors Contributing to the Mental Health of Children in Step-Families

This finding warns us that the average stepfather is probably not a good educator of his stepchildren. It is clear that this information can be an expression of other factors that affect the child along with the fact that he has a stepfather.

The mother’s personality, her previous and current treatment of the child, the quality of the marriage between the parents, the relationship between the mother and the stepfather, the relationship between the brothers in the family, etc. should also be taken into account.

Conclusion

It seems that even the average stepmother does not completely replace the average mother, and that on average she is a worse educator than the mother. Our respondents who have a stepmother also suffer more often from mental disorders than children who do not have one.

Maternal Employment and Child Rearing

Every fourth mother of our respondents in the city is employed. Of the mothers of rural respondents, only one in twenty works outside the household.

The mother of city children is in three quarters of cases the child’s main educator because she is not employed. In the countryside, she is almost always the main educator.

Urban children whose mothers are employed are less likely to exhibit behavioral disorders than children whose mothers are employed only in the household. Mental development disorders occur equally often in the countryside, regardless of whether the mother is employed or not.

Maternal employment outside the home is not, therefore, as detrimental a factor in raising children as is commonly thought. The mother’s public employment seems to have a positive effect on the formation of the child’s personality, especially in the city.

Grandparenting and Child Rearing

The most common replacement in the family for the mother is the grandmother. Along with her mother, she is the most important educator of our children.

Of the city respondents, one in six lives with their grandmother, and one in four in the countryside. There is no statistically significant difference in the incidence of mental disorders in children living with a grandmother and in those living without her.

That is why we cannot say that grandmothers are better or worse educators than their parents.

When we started organizing the protection of the mental health of school children in Croatia, the opinion arose that mental pathology at that age was neither so widespread nor so significant that it should be given a certain advantage in solving students’ health problems. We knew from experience that there are many individuals among school children of both sexes who need psychological and psychiatric help.

Survey Methodology

However, this had to be proven in order to justify the establishment of counseling centers for psychohygiene at dispensaries for school children and youth, as well as the training of staff to work in these counseling centers. So we decided to examine how many students there are among school children who show any mental disorders. As a measure of the mental health of our respondents, we took the presence or absence of any symptoms of behavioral disorders.

Prevalence of Behavioral Disorders

This form of mental disorders can occur in a child independently, without other mental disorders, or it is obligatory to follow other mental disorders. In other words – a child with behavioral disorders does not have to show other disorders, but neurotic, mentally retarded, mentally ill or psychotic children always show some behavioral disorders, at least as a side symptom.

Therefore, the absence of any behavioral disorder is a reliable indicator that we have a mentally healthy child in front of us. We decided, therefore, to conduct a survey that would show us the frequency of behavioral disorders among school children.

We started from the fact that the child’s behavior is an expression of his attitude towards the environment in which he lives as well as his reactions to the actions of the educator towards him. If the child’s psyche is slightly damaged, then his behavior is more negative the greater the psychological burdens to which we expose him. For a school child, school is the biggest burden, and it is also a task that the child struggles with for many years, almost continuously and systematically.

Therefore, it is very likely that the child will show some disturbances in his attitude towards school if he has any difficulties in overcoming life problems. It will show some behavioral disturbance in school even when it does not show it in any other area of ​​its relationships with people. That is why we took the behavior of children in school as a measure of their mental health.

Data Collection and Analysis

Data on the behavior of a number of primary school students were collected by surveying their teachers. We did this in the school year 1960/61, in the narrower area of ​​Zagreb – the capital of Croatia, and in 12 cities in the province. In order to be able to compare the data on mental disorders in urban children with those in rural children, we performed in the school year 1962/63. equal examination in the area of ​​one rural municipality.

Results

The sample included in the cities 25,600 children and in the village 2,407 children. Data processing showed that more than half of our respondents – both in the city and in the countryside – show disturbances in their behavior at school, which means that they do not develop mentally in a completely healthy way.

Therefore, mental disorders in school-age children are very common, just a mass occurrence. It can side with the most massive physical health disorders in school children, such as poor posture, spinal and foot deformities, or dental caries.

Conclusion

Therefore, we can determine with certainty that the disturbances in the mental life of school children are among the most important health problems of that part of the population. They are a typical social disease, both in terms of their causes and consequences, and in terms of the possibilities for their prevention and elimination.