(a) The school today provides so many interests and activities that the time of the pupil is fully occupied.  Since it is essential to retain the family group as much as possible, in general, children should not be encouraged to go out excessively on week nights.  The competition of organizations for good school children as leaders can become unsettling to the young.

(b) Adolescents who have left school provide a field in which club organizations are able to provide interests and activities for those who have left the directed conditions of school life and are entering on the freedom of adulthood.  Many of these activities will be for both sexes and their success depends upon trained leadership.

(c) There is much advantage in having the clubs and organizations within a community locally co-ordinated.  Over lapping can be avoided, facilities are more easily provided, and the opportunity is given to youth to share in the interests and efforts of the adult community.

(d) The Committee warmly commends the work of all those societies and clubs which have been active in promoting the well-being of young people.  Chief among the difficulties faced by these character-building organizations which have made representations to the Committee is the lack of trained leadership.  Their appeal is for more leaders and for some means by which these leaders may be trained.

But however desirable and commendable all these services to youth are, and even allowing for the fact that without them some children might slip into bad ways, their further development will not provide the cure.  Indeed, much of the immorality which has occurred has been among children who have had the fullest opportunity for healthy sport and recreation.

=(3) Liquor and Gambling=

It was strongly urged by religious and benevolent organizations, and also by many private people, that juvenile delinquency could be attributed in part to the effects of drinking and betting.

The Committee realizes that drinking and gambling to excess may well be symptomatic[5] of the type of home where there is child neglect.  There is no need to stress the obvious.  But the matter does not rest there.  Much danger is inherent in the view that no social occasion is complete without liquor.  It has come to the notice of the Committee that many parents are conniving at the practice of having liquor at adolescent parties.  Such parents are being unfair to young people, and the Committee considers that if right-thinking parents took a firm stand in this matter a sound lead would be given to the community as a whole.

X.  The Home Environment

=(1) Feelings of Insecurity:  The Unloved Child=

A harmonious emotional development during childhood is one of the most important factors influencing human behaviour.  Any child who feels unloved, unwanted, or jealous of the care and attention given to other members of the household suffers from a feeling of insecurity.  This feeling of insecurity renders the child more susceptible to influences leading to delinquency.