A Contribution from an AUCA student to Psychology in Kyrgyzstan

March 5, 2015

Every year, students of AUCA are releasing up to 50 and 100 research works on various topics related to media, business, economic, social issues, psychology and IT. These works are then used to analyze a number of important issues, publications, articles and research works in various renowned organizations. For many of our alumni their research has helped in defining their future career, in which they work for many years. 

Today we would like to introduce you with the brief summary of the research of our senior student in the field of mental health of adolescents in Kyrgyz high schools.

Christopher Reintsma, senior of Psychology 

My name is Christopher Reintsma, and I am a senior student of Psychology at the American University of Central Asia.  I applied for a grant from the Student Intellectual Life Committee (SILC) and received a grant supporting my research in the field of mental health of adolescents.  My current project as it stands is a study of frustration tolerance in adolescents in Kyrgyz high schools, with the intent of determining factors which contribute to frustration development in young students.  Overall, I intend to research suicidal ideation in adolescents and how classroom environment contributes to, or acts as a buffer for, suicidal thoughts in school age children.  This drive stems from being exposed to adolescent mental health for a majority of my life, being a child who received psychological counseling, being around others who received counseling, and the development of the idea that children who are depressed or display self-risk behavior often report their problems being linked to school.  I intend to explore this field in depth, not only in my bachelor’s thesis, but also as I continue into my post-graduate work.

After over a year of preparation for my project on suicidal ideation and classroom environment, I found that the introduction of such concepts in Bishkek (namely testing for thoughts about suicide) is not necessarily culturally appropriate – being as this issue is highly stigmatized in Kyrgyzstan, and a subject that brings great shame to those who are connected to such problems. As a rule, when such a tragedy takes place in any family, not only here, it is not something that causes extreme grief and a pain that most would rather not relive.  However, in order to establish a system of testing which will be appropriate more research needs to be conducted, which is why I am conducting my study in the way that I am.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) numbers of reported suicides have consistently been on the rise for the past 40 years in the 15-19 year old age group.  I see this as a call for intervention and prevention awareness. There are many factors known and generally accepted to be mediators of self-risk behavior in children; however, factors in the classroom are not well studied.  There are some studies, which report their findings and statistics from South Korea, China and Australia (a few other places, predominantly eastern Asian countries).  Regardless, this is a subject that is not well researched and I feel is the next step in addressing the consistently rising issue of suicide among adolescents. Ultimately, I plan to investigate how classroom environment plays a role in the personal, behavioral and emotional lives of children worldwide – an effort to search for factors that are potentially universal and factors that are only present in individual cultures.

My research will help schools in Kyrgyzstan to establish a better classroom environment, focusing on exploiting factors that contribute to better mental health and avoiding those factors that show to be stressors.  I plan to show the results of this research to local Kyrgyz universities, schools and educational centers as the basis for reformation of classroom structure, assuming the results are significant.  If students with poor coping with frustration show a greater response to certain classroom environmental factors, I can assert that these particular factors should demand greater attention.  In addition, this study will open up further research opportunities, which can branch from my current study, further contributing to a better understanding of adolescent mental health, pedagogy and classroom structure in Kyrgyzstan.

I would like to extend my sincerest gratitude to the SILC and to AUCA as a whole for supporting my research on a topic, which not only hits home for me, but also will ultimately make a difference in understanding how to better help and shape the lives of our youth.  This bachelor’s thesis will be the first step in a series of work that will define my own career as well as initiate awareness for an issue that demands more attention worldwide.  I cannot imagine progressing in the way that I have without the support of the SILC, the department of psychology and my colleagues here at AUCA.  Thank you all so much, and I look forward to sharing my findings!

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