THE president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors has attacked television soap operas for "heaping scorn" on permanent stable human relationships.
Father John Dunne said soap operas were one of the factors school guidance counsellors found were exacerbating the traditional pains of adolescence. Other factors included academic stress, the points system, unemployment, family breakdown, drug culture, and wanton violence.
"The cheapening of the dignity of life, as seen in the horrors of conflicts across the globe, not least in our own country and Britain" was also leading to family, social and cultural upheaval, he said.
Father Dunne told the IGC annual conference in The Curragh, Co Kildare, yesterday that insecurity about jobs and the experience and fear of unemployment were having a destructive effect on many couples' relationships.
In the UK, only 57 per cent of the labour force were working full time the rest were either part time, on limited contracts or unemployed.
"Many feel they have little left to contribute to their partners, children and society."
Father Dunne praised the development of the guidance function in Irish schools, but he warned there was a danger that "too much can be laid" at the guidance counsellor's door.
He praised the Minister for Education for introducing new guidelines on guidance in schools earlier this week.
These would result in an improved service for students, Father Dunne concluded.
