Editorial [International Journal of Emotional Education, 4(2)]

Abstract

In a paper we wrote a couple of years ago we argued that the worldwide shift away from collectivist values and the move towards individualism, which locates self-actualisation as the pinnacle of human achievement, has led to serious problems for children and young people (Cooper and Cefai, 2009). The psychologist Oliver James (2007) refers to this excessive individualism among adults as ‘affluenza’, which he equates to a disease characterised by an obsessive, but hopeless pursuit of fulfillment through rampant materialism and the urge to economic consumption and display. He argues that ‘affluenza’ distorts values to the extent that human qualities such as empathy, kindness and love for others become sidelined. Layard and Dunn (2009) cite this individual pursuit of private interest and success as one of the major causes of problems that contribute to the social, emotional and behavioural difficulties manifested by children and young people, including bullying, anxiety and depression. They refer to evidence showing the widening gap between adults and children in terms of the amount of time that children spend with adults as opposed to with their peers.