"Around 9.8 percent of teenagers throughout Indonesia suffer from emotional mental disorder," Head of BKKBN Hasto Wardoyo stated at the commemoration of the 29th National Family Day in Yogyakarta, Wednesday.
According to Wardoyo, three main threats that can affect the nation's development are stunting in children, emotional mental disorders and disabilities, and narcotics, psychotropic substances, and addictive substances.
Based on the 2018 Basic Health Research data, some 9.8 percent of teenagers in Indonesia have been affected by emotional mental disorder.
This figure continues to experience a significant increase, whereas earlier, the number had only reached 6.1 percent in 2013.
Meanwhile, based on data from the World Health Organization in 2019, one in eight people, or 970 million people worldwide, suffer from an emotional mental disorder.
The increase in emotional mental disorders will affect adolescents' behavior, and this necessitates serious attention from all parties since bad behavior can be formed in teenage years, such as being easily provoked or getting involved in criminal activity.
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Apart from emotional mental disorders in teenagers, another aspect that needs to be highlighted is the increasing rate of divorce in parents every year, Wardoyo stated.
Based on statistical data in 2015, the divorce rate in Indonesia was around 350 thousand couples and had increased to 580 thousand couples in 2021.
"Hence, there were 580 thousand broken families. Children from those families might be ending up receiving less attention because of their parents' separation," Wardoyo remarked.
Thus, he emphasized that the state needed to help every individual in society to build a qualified family in order to realize the creation of a superior and advanced young generation.
On the 29th National Family Day themed, "Prevent Stunting to Realize Stunting Free Family," Wardoyo said that Yogyakarta was one of the provinces that understood the importance of preventing children from being affected by emotional mental disorders through its low prevalence of stunting.
Yogyakarta Province could become a role model for other regions to implement mutual cooperation in stunting eradication, along with the other regions with the lowest prevalence rates: Jakarta and Bali.
“Yogyakarta is also the region with the highest achievement for participation in the Simultaneous Family Planning Service of a Million Acceptors. The achievement of acceptors in Yogyakarta exceeded the target, by more than 200 percent," he added.
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Translator: Hreeloita Dharma S, Resinta S
Editor: Suharto
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