CHILDREN AND YOUTH WITH BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS AND SOCIETY RESPONSES: THE MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES APPROACH

Cilj rada bio je usmjeren na upoznavanje višestrukih perspektiva različitih dionika društva o pojavi, tijeku i promjenama problema u ponašanju kod djece i mladih danas u Hrvatskoj te načinima suočavanja društva s tom pojavom i učinkovitosti društvenih intervencija. Primijenjena je kvalitativna metodologija istraživanja te su provedeni intervjui i fokusne skupine s ukupno 140 sudionika (djece, roditelja, učitelja, stručnjaka, novinara i političara – donositelja odluka). Podaci su obrađeni po načelima kvalitativne tematske analize, a rezultati su dali odgovore na postavljena istraživačka pitanja. Višeperspektivnost se u ovom istraživanju pokazala važnom za upoznavanje načina na koji se pojava razumije, njenih ishodišta i posljedica te ukazivanje na ono što ne funkcionira, odnosno, dijelom i što bi trebalo poduzeti da se pojava ublaži. Ujednačenost perspektiva pokazala se u odnosu na svijest o složenosti problema i neprimjerenosti njegovog rješavanja te u odnosu na vrijednosnu konfuziju i besperspektivnost. Kad je riječ o načinima rješavanja i suočavanja s tom pojavom, sudionici istraživanja različito vide što treba poduzeti o čemu se u zaključku rada diskutira.This article is aiming to find out multiple perspectives of different stakeholders regarding phenomenology, present situation and changes in the area of children and youth behavior problems as well as the ways in which Croatian society responds to them. Qualitative approach in researching social phenomenon is applied. Interviews and focus group discussions with 140 participants (children, parents, teachers, professionals from various disciplines, journalists, politicians, and decision makers) were conducted. The data were processed following the principles of qualitative thematic analysis and showing that in that way proposed research questions could be answered. The results show that multiple perspectives could be important for getting to know how the phenomenon of behavior problems is understood in society, what are the causes and consequences of it. Further on, multiple perspectives are important for recognizing what formal and informal social interventions are successful and what should be done to reduce this social problem. It was concluded that different stakeholders appear to similarly see complexity of the problem, existing values confusion and hopelessness, as well as ineffective social responses. When it comes to the specific strategies for approaching this social problem, different stakeholders have different opinions. Discussion of the results is part of the article