ST JAMES, Jamaica- Researcher and chief executive officer (CEO) of Bluedot Insights, Larren Peart, has revealed  alarming data that suggests that over 30 per cent of Jamaican children under 14 exhibit mental health symptoms.

“Approximately 34 per cent of juveniles in Jamaica display mental illnesses before the age of 14 and 48.4 per cent before the age of 18. Shocking right? So the Jamaican ‘bad pickney’ exhibits apparent social, psychological and behavioural problems that acts out in the home or at school,” he said.

He was speaking at the Sam Sharpe Teachers’ College Research Day, held under the theme: The Impact of Crime on Education: The Western Jamaica Perspective” at the college on Wednesday.

Speaking against the background of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), Peart said ACE “can be viewed as being both social and psychological in cause”.

“Childhood trauma occur before age 18 and prolonged exposure to ACEs or adverse childhood experiences can lead to negative health outcomes and negative health risk. So one of the major contributing factors to ACEs is to start addressing issues related to crime from individuals are young, hence looking at childhood trauma. I mean to the proverbial, treat the disease and not the symptoms,” he said.

He expressed that the usual response to students exhibiting bad behaviour is to dismiss them, which leaves them open for gang recruitment.

“As educators without personal background information, these students tend to be dismissed, not always in terms of being sent home, but ignored and will often give up on them. And when you give up on them, that’s when the guns come into play, because they find our home in the gangs and with certain nefarious characters,” he said.