Abstract

The term ‘latchkey children’ refers to unsupervised youngsters who care for themselves before or after school, on weekends, and during holidays while their parents work. The term self-care is additionally used to depict these kids. Children left alone for more than three hours often present with low self esteem, low academic efficacy and high levels of loneliness and depression, they are often not well adjusted and sometimes present with behavioral problems. A comparative study to correlate loneliness and behavioral problems between latchkey and non-latchkey children (age between 13-15 years) was conducted in selected schools at Mangaluru. Data regarding loneliness was collected from 15 latchkey and 45 non-latchkey children and data regarding behavioral problems was collected from their parents. UCLA loneliness scale and child behavior checklist 6-18 years was used for the same. Majority (80%) of the latchkey children felt severely lonely, whereas 71.1% of the non-latchkey felt moderately lonely. Most (93.3%) and 78.1% of the latchkey and non latchkey children experienced mild behavioral problems. There was a positive correlation between loneliness and behavioral problems in non-latchkey (r=0.184) and latchkey children (r=0.684). The loneliness between latchkey and non-latchkey children was found to be insignificant (t=0.00018). The behavioral problems between latchkey and non-latchkey children was found to be insignificant (t=0.23).

Key words: Behavioral problems, Latchkey, Loneliness, Non-latchkey