Case Research of Personology of Filipino Children in Conflict with the Law (CICL)

In the Philippines, afar from the usual attachment, a child sometimes leads to offend out of survival necessity that leads to total separation from their family, this explains a phenomenon of conflict to the law. Aiming to describe the profile and personology of CICL in Bahay Kalinga; and its correlates. Case research was used in analyzing violations, family structure and personology among 20 participants. In-house CICL’s profile depicted: 15 years and 9 months as average age; substantial number of boys committed offences than girls; commonly falls below poverty rate; majority stop schooling; all own a dysfunctional family; and affirmed 4-5 family members. Regarding personology, mostly verified an average self-concept, majority pointed out having realistic self-image, and beyond median represented low self-esteem. Descriptions and measures of their profile and personology could determine the risk of being CICL. The patterns of personology were focused through the information of their extracted statements. Personology traits and types play a vital role in the concepts described by Filipino CICL. Thus, there were seven themes that build up the collection of personology as precedents of traits and patterns. Replicate the study to establish Philippine norm of cases associated with conflict of the law.


INTRODUCTION
A child can continue to grow at a steady pace. Its final growth spurt begins at the start of puberty between ages 9 and 15 years old wherein nourishment needs to correspond with changes in growth rates if appropriately given by their healthcare providers. If so, each child can advance skills that may move away widely in physical, language, emotional, social and alike. Contrarywise, children who are unable to express themselves well may be more likely to have aggressive behavior or temper tantrums. Imagine these needs are not sufficed by the providers because of lack of awareness toward their child's thinking, expression, feelings, perceptions, values, desires, interest, and personality as well as the self-concept, self-image, and selfesteem.
Since then, one of the focal concerns of several parents revolved on problems concerning their child's behavior and development. Frequently, conflicts occur between parents and children over socialization tasks, relationship concerns, and gaining compliance from the latter. Many situations that are termed "normal" behavior problems are that of the adult and not of the child. (NLM, 2007) Each element either in terms of unit or member, representing the family reflects dynamic characteristics. With this, personology explains and correlates these essential variances and dynamics with behavior, thus revealing the key to personality (PRDCI, 2010).
As a framework, the descriptions of the participants' profile and the personology of self gives clarity to the current issues through case research. This study is a child-focused framework. Despite of numbers of approaches, the child is still seen in the context of own family and community. Nowadays, the family has distinct characteristics which contributed the child to be the product of their environment. The situation emulated the child's realities of their family, community and society.
According to official estimates of the National Statistics Office (NSO) as of 2000, the Filipino family puts much quality on the welfare of the child's family is increasingly breaking down amid the struggle for survival. In the process, children are unintentionally being sacrificed. As noted, the child relies on sensitive parental attention and care for the growth of their well-being and sense of self-worth. This attention often diminishes when a parent is preoccupied with the consequences of a relationship break up and is engaged in conflict with the other parent leaving behind the legions of families whose incomes cannot catch up which serves as an aspect (PREDA, 2004).
Children themselves also impact their situations and try to cope either positively or negatively. The child is not mere inactive accessories but has increasingly been important thespians in the survival of their families. At times, parents can no longer be able to care for their children, so the older ones take charge of their younger siblings, or they are left to fend for themselves. In some cases, children ended up on the streets where they find "alternative families" among their peer groups or gangs. In some cases, minor crimes against property establish survival strategies.
In the study of Alicia R. Bala (2007) entitled Community-Based Options in Handling Children At-Risk and Children in Conflict with the Law, there are 4,039 CICL nationwide (as of July 2007). A child who is at risk is vulnerable of committing criminal offenses because of personal, family and social circumstances. A child at risk is a street child, victim of abuse, an abandoned or neglected child, a product of family, out of school youth, a member of a gang, a dweller in a community with an elevated level of criminality, or an accomplice in situations of armed conflict. Whereas, a child in conflict with the law is alleged as, accused of, or adjudged as having committed an offense under Philippines laws or the fundamental law of the land. If so, our children now are at the risk of conflict to the law or worst becoming future criminals. Among those considered "high-risk" are abandoned and neglected children who have not been taken in by existing DSWD facilities, children deliberately used in criminal activities and children of prostituted women. Such is the context of children who become vulnerable to circumstances where they come into conflict with the law (Bala, 2007).
Children in the Philippines can be arrested and detained like adults as early as nine years old. The Council for the Welfare of Children reported that from 1995 to 2000, around 52,756 children have conflicted with the law at which many of these cases involved the detention of minors (UNICEF Philippines, 2003). Similarly, with the statement mentioned by Sec. Leila L. De Lima (2011) of Department of Justice, "the topic of children is highly emotive, not the least because, by their very nature, they are the most defenseless members of society and their vulnerability is inherent.
Even goes beyond the definition, personology is a widespread language for learning about oneself. Through this, an individual can alter one's learning, thinking, expressive and perceptual style, feelings and emotions, values, desires, interests and physical action needs. It is a documentation of the person's own trait patterns and their connections that produce one's innate talents, skills and failures; documentation presented in simple language that will allow a person to put this knowledge into use in one's own self-enfolding. It provides every individual with a self-portrait that is uncannily accurate. Many people claim that the profile recognizes them in entirety. It can validate the child's sensibilities, preferences and values. It provides an orthodox description of "self". Personology applies to everyone. It can be used to improve communications, counseling, parenting, services and placement, as well as selfappreciation and acceptance.
Undoubtedly the most significant and eloquent voice in self-concept theory was that of Carl Rogers in 1947(UNICEF Philippines, 2003 who announced an entire system of aiding built around the importance of the self. He believes that self-concept has three components: the view one has about self (self-image), the value one places on self (self-esteem), and the desire of one's really likes (ideal self). Self-concept is simply what one understands about himself. It differs from self-image because it involves one's social abilities and character, physical appearance and body image, and thinking. On the other hand, self-image is the mental picture of how one sees self. According to Kuhn (1906), the tendency to be judgmental of self-image includes the following: how one sees self physically (body image), what others think of self or what one perceives them to think of, and what one thinks about personality, one's status, and the kind of person thinks. Another essential element of personology is selfesteem as popularized by Alfred Adler. This derived the conclusion that all children begin life in an inferior position. He puts forth the theory that most of a child's early social life consists of learning to cope with feelings of inferiority.
Self-esteem must be developed during the early years by way of positive reinforcement and praise. With that, the identity theory of self explains the connection of self as composed of multiple identities that reflect the various social positions that an individual occupies in the larger social structure. Meanings in an identity reflect an individual's conception of himself or herself as an occupant of that position or "self-in-role" (Stryker, 1980). However, in this study, these elements of personology are very essential for it can put clarity to the child's reasons of becoming in conflict with the law.
Despite other studies, the researcher believes that there is an existing gap which this research tries to fill-in. As limitation, it shall not dwell on appeals to so-called "parental instincts." Likewise, it is not bound to change any provisions stipulated in the comprehensive reform of the system of administration of juvenile justice in the Philippines. The present study describes the significant concerns about the participants' stance being CICL. Specifically, to describe the profile of CICL residing in Bahay Kalinga; and define their personology traits and types using the patterns of self.

METHODS
CICL under the custody of Bahay Kalinga in Dasmariñas City were the participants. A purposive technique, with 20 selected children who have incurred offenses or pending cases from the center. The participants were selected accordingly: (1) have been staying in the center for about one to three months, since this is the minimum required stay for offenders with pending case/s, and (2) with age bracket from 12 to 17 years old as stipulated in the center's guidelines. The study also considers the participation of any of the key informants: ancillary personnel, helping professionals, and parents/guardian/significant others.
Case research was delivered to gather the needed information in accordance with the nature of the situation based on existing data at the time of the research for use in exploring the etiologies of the phenomena (Joven, 2002). While the University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing (2016) stated that it is particularly appropriate for exploratory studies for discovering relevant constructs in areas where theory building at the formative stages, for studies where the experiences of participants and context of actions are critical, and for studies aimed at understanding complex, temporal processes like why and how rather than what factors or causes with richer, more contextualized, and authentic interpretation of the phenomenon by its ability to capture a rich array of contextual data from the perspectives of multiple participants and using multiple levels of analysis. Specifically, this employs thematic analysis which intensively considers multiple cases or a limited number of atypical, interconnected cases, and thus, contributes to the occurrence of certain events (Tan, 2007). This thematic analysis concerns the child's profile including personal circumstances and violations, status, and personology of self and its patterns.
CICL under the custody of Bahay Kalinga in Dasmariñas City were the participants. Using purposive technique, only 20 met the criteria: (1) incurred offenses or pending cases; (2) have been staying in BK for about one to three months, since this is the minimum required stay for offenders with pending case/s; and (3) age bracket from 12 to 17 years old as stipulated in the center's guidelines. Table 1 presents the profile of the participants (appendix 1).
Specialized and qualitative methods were established in examining the variables and analyzing its measures. The specialized methods comprise the measures of self, which collectively assess the description of the child's Identity Theory of "Self". The measures were translated by experts from the Filipino Department to be used as mother-tongue and validated accordingly.

Pasao Self-Concept Inventory. It is an indigenous instrument developed by
Myrna Pasao which measures the total beliefs, thoughts, and feelings of a person that defines the "self's" attributes as object of the society in a five-point frequency scale.
Self-Image Inventory. A tool developed by Dr. Christopher Evans (1977) that aims to assess the aspect of self, deals with wants (would or wish). The items obtained with an overall cronbach alpha of 0.82. It includes the following components: discrepancy between what is known as "self" and "other" perception, feelings of guilt, powerlessness, and punishment, and feelings of total power and unrealistic fantasy.
Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. A scale that evaluates whether positive or negative thru self-esteem by referring to most general or overall positive evaluation with a cronbach alpha of 0.87 (Gecas 1982;Rosenberg 1990;Rosenberg et al. 1995). It is a ten-item likert with a four-point scale-from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Kinetic Family Drawings. Is a standardized projective test which was developed by Burns and Kaufman (1970). It employs a method to draw the members of their families including themselves doing things and in mobility to depict the primary disturbances, conformity, defensiveness, sophistication, and other genuine and intangible aspects of the child (ages 9 onwards) as well as his family which can explain the type of family (dysfunctional or not) the child has in the context of family dynamics.
Qualitative in-depth interview. The qualitative method employs a selfconstructed tool that can record within 45-60 minutes and validate the facts about the participants. It includes questions which can provide narrations related to their incurred cases and significant contribution towards the personology of self. Kahn and Cannell (1957) describe interviewing as "a conversation with a purpose." It may be the overall strategy or only one of several methods employed (Miller, 2006). The purpose of using this method is to generate more like conversations than formal events with predetermined response categories. The researcher tries to explore a few general topics to help uncover the participants' views, otherwise respects how the participant frames and structures the responses. Similarly, the researcher reviewed the responses and gathered psychometric and stated results to identify relevant information essential to the study of their personology and the phenomenon of being CICL. Similarly, Chan and Wong (2012) allows the researcher to develop categorization and possible determinants of becoming in conflict with the law by marking all the relevant parts and linking them into significant socio-psychological themes.
The researcher came up with case profiles. Hence, before data collection, written consent explaining the aims and nature of the study was obtained. The researcher also informed the participants that no risk is involved in participating throughout the study and it is voluntary. The participants agreed by signing their individual consent and approved by the DSWD head and house-parents' confirmation. Following the ethical guidelines, anonymity and other rights were considered. Gathering the ancillary data include the participants' nature and daily routine from measures and interviews. Administration of specialized tests included the measures of self as selfconcept, self-image, and self-esteem tests, and Kinetic-Family-Drawing to measure the family type of each participant. Lastly, conduct an in-depth interview. A series of question were given in each case to enable valid facts, to share their collective experiences, sentiments and concerns which confirms their narrative experiences. The recordings were transcribed recordings creating 20 individual transcripts.
The data analysis used both quantitative and qualitative measures. The participants' self-concept, selfimage, and self-esteem were measured separately including their profile as descriptive statistics. Then, thematic analysis of the individualized interview and narration were elicited from the 20 cases. The narratives were transcribed. Since the center does not allow the session to be videotaped, an audio recording was used as alternative. Upon transcription, the researcher performed a content analysis to analyze the data using thematic analysis (Willig, 2008;2013).
The researcher performed a content analysis of the transcriptions to analyze the data. This process consists of examining categorizing, tabulating, or otherwise recombining the evidence to address the initial propositions of a study (Polit & Beck, 2004;Yin, 1994).

RESULTS
The researcher made use of the pairwise comparisons between categories and responses from the participants to ensure that the "voice" of the participant by extracting the narrated statements using thematic analysis. It was applied to the transcripts and generated key concepts that were evident in the data.
CICL Stance : There were four types of offences observed to be common as their trend of offending-eight offences against property that involves theft and/or robbery; five agitated physical offences like frustrated murder, physical injury, libel, and cruelty to animals; four sexual offences similarly with acts of lasciviousness and rape; and three drugrelated offences. Their stance was underscored with two facets: profiling the CICL and personology patterns. These categories are viewed as essential in determining the interpretation of personology and their stance being CICL that never made up of isolated concepts but are all relative to each other. There are features of the participants' attributes that overlap across these categories.
Profiling the CICL in Bahay Kalinga : The profile of the participants such as age, sex, socio-economic status, educational attainment, family type and family size as uniquely described by 20 participants from BK using the evidence from their transcripts.
Age. The average age of offenders is 15 years and 9 months. There were handfuls of children under the age of 14, detained and kept custody in the center. Rare cases, children as young as eight or nine were handed over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) or other referring center catering young children.
Sex. There were vast numbers of boys who tend to have in conflict with the law as compared to girls, however, girls also contributed number to commit offences. This has been found true among the CICL in Bahay Kalinga with 18:2 (boys:girls) ratio of offenders.
Socio-Economic Status (SES). In most country belonging to a third world status, poverty marks as one of the underwriting factors, also known as below poverty rate. In the context of Bahay Kalinga, 2 participants (10%) were categorized as above poverty rate, while majority with 18 out of 20 (90%) falls the category of below poverty rate. Educational Level. 11 participants have been mainstreamed and have experienced going in grade school, specifically Grade 2 (or 5 out of the 20 participants). This indicates that majority of the children in the center are school dropped out at eight years old and acquired formal education but needs to stop schooling because of the lack of financial support from their family or guardian, as well as peer influence. On the other hand, the remaining nine of the participants set on secondary level but had to leave school because of their case.
Family Type. Using the KFD, all CICL residing in Bahay Kalinga disclosed a dysfunctional family. There are 16 children who discussed negative descriptions about their family background while the other four children provided defensive representation of family which was validated thru in-depth qualitative interview.
Family Size. CICL in Bahay Kalinga usually comes from families with an average of 4 to 5 members. About more than half or 65% (13 out of 20) of CICL covered by the study lived with parents, 10% (2 out of 20) with the mother alone, 15 % (3 out of 20) with father alone, and only 5% (1 out of 20) with relatives and another 5% (1 out of 20) with grandparents.
Personology traits and types.
The patterns of personology were focused through the information of their extracted statements. Personology traits and types play a vital role in the concepts described by the 20 cases. Table 2 describes the extracted narratives from the in-depth interview. There were seven themes that build up the collection of personology as precedents of traits and patterns. Constructive representation of self validates the perspective of some participants. Explaining their views for equality (parity), and optimism to change. Certain number of participants affirm, like C2 who shows an overlapping typical behavior of mostly motivated in attempting to protect the 'self' in social situations. He gave clarity to this concern and narrated: Oo, kasi lahat naman ng tao talaga naming pantay-pantay eh.  (table 3) inclusive of the following attributes presented by CICL from BK: activity level, adaptability, approach/withdrawal, sensitivity, intensity of emotional response, quality of mood, and persistence (grit and determination). Agile Personology. Possesses dynamic with approachable and positive attributes on activity level, adaptability, sensitivity, and persistence or grit to change. These include receptive child (DID), resistant child (DIC), superficial child (DAD), and integrated child (DAC). A limited value of 5% (1) was attributed to this type. Rigid Personology. Reveals inferiority and restrictiveness in adaptability, slow in activity level, withdrawn in new settings, and are shy, although they can still alter oneself to adapt well if given time. Consisting of volatile child (RID), skeptical child (RIC), at-risk child (RAD), and reticent child (RAC). About 30% (6) were identified with this type. Reserved Personology. Exhibits moderate activity, adaptability and intensity of emotional response, and are interested in new things indicative of their persistence (grit and determination). This comprises the sensible child (LID), rational child (LIC), restrained child (LAD), and adaptive child (LAC). With 65% (13) fall under this type.

DISCUSSION
The results highlighted essential attributes that would further explain the 20 participants' stance being CICL by understanding their profile and personology patterns. It was stated that their profile clearly describes their stance being CICL, often imparted by their peers, family, or significant others. Hence, it seems that they confirmed many knowledge-based studies related to CICL were not in direct context to the child's behavior alone. Working with the results allow us to expound beyond the child's ordinary self.

Inclusive understanding on the CICL Stance
The profile concerning the nature of offense, age, sex, socio-economic status, educational level, family size, and family type are some of the attributes that provided clear cut of their behavior and belief's conflicting with the law.
Beyond the familial background, the essential component of self among the participants personology patterns become responsive to a wide array of their traits. Seemingly important, in terms of personology traits regarded the value of activity level, adaptability, approach/withdrawal, intensity of emotional response, quality of mood, and persistence or determination (grit). The theme on identical picture of free self be associated with the activity level of some CICL from Bahay Kalinga that explains their extent of movement and body activity. A boy with a criminal misdemeanor of offense against property confirms the same behavior he exhibits just to meet the image, which his family used to know him. Like any other study on CICL, adaptability tends to be one of the essential aspects in social reconstruction. Hence, the constructive representation of self appertains the pace of change in routine and ability to overcome an initial negative response thrown by the others. What seems particularly important, in terms of being adaptable is that participants have an opportunity to view the process of being persistent that outlines the grit or determination in keeping the self integrated at a difficulty activity without giving up. True to the case of a boy with sexual offense, his ability to handle typical response towards social situation and tagged as a "rapist", he still seems to handle his case with civility and maintain a consistent view of his self-worth. In terms of limited beliefs and attitudes in engaging with others and family sets as an approach that initially retorts to a new person or unfamiliar situation. A girl with demeanor of physical injury/libel intended to get the satisfaction of exercising the stability to wash feelings of social impotence that she cannot earn from the family, to her environment, or the people she gets along with. She becomes withdrawn and hostile, motivated to cloak self with superficial friendliness. Similarly, a boy with sexual offense has a shaken behavior who feels inadequate and tends to be inferior whenever with a group and towards his family. While both themes hold dynamic existence and devaluating self express the intensity of emotional response that describes some participants' reactions to positive/negative situations that depicts the energy level of mood expression. A boy with a drug-related offense displays an overall progressive behavior that indicates exceptional self-evaluation, who is motivated in attempting to represent his own attributes. A confidence originated from substance abuse. Relating to emotional response, a boy known for his cruelty to animals and physical agitated offense depict an unmotivated and deprived behavior within his community. This has contributed him to poor degree in competencies to 'fit in' and feels unworthy towards his family. Likewise, he has trouble coping with his personal problems. In a psychological perspective, low esteem is a consequence of the self's incapacity for reflexivity, that is, the ability to look at oneself and to evaluate what one sees either to positive or negative self-feelings, such as pride or shame. Lastly, the two themes on appraising the controlled self and reflected despondency affirms the participants quality of mood as illustrated on the amount of pleasant and cheerful behavior (positive mood), as contrasted with fussy, sad and unpleasant behavior (negative mood) become evident to them. A boy participant simply understands himself more as compared to others. He even stated that his ability to adjust or change is intended just to fit in and feel belongingness.
The key finding of this study is that it is evident that the CICL's stance being in conflict with the law receive more categorical themes that measures beyond adaptability, instead it adds more such as value of activity level, approach/withdrawal, intensity of emotional response, quality of mood, and persistence or determination. The research highlights the participants' understandings on the patterns of self, whereas the personology traits and types.

Comparison with Past Researches
In terms of personology, a global construct in some researchers and others might agree that the self-concept, selfimage, and self-esteem shared and composed of multiple levels. The objective of this study was to explore participant's understandings of being against the law in terms of profile and personology traits and types; they were considered vulnerable considering their stance as CICL. To meet this objective, thematic analysis was employed, and the analysis produced key themes. There are no rich constructs concerning the patterns of personology as associated to CICL's stance in this domain and it was for this reason thematic analysis was chosen to analyze the data. The method proved to be particularly useful in generating these exploratory data that were discussed in prior part of the study. Although, separately, Harter (1999) mentioned about some of roles and traits related to self-concept that may clash such behavior of warmth and friendliness with peers, moody and being unresponsive with parents. Moving to adolescent stage, the cognitive capabilities enable the child to integrate these roles and clashing components into a coherent sense of self. Likewise, Patricia Linville (1985, as cited by Hutt, 2009) a complex selfconcept leads to more stability in affect or emotion, which is associated with better mental health , but when a negative event occurs in an area related to one selfaspect like the self-concept; the individual is likely to experience negative affect or emotion in that area (International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2008). In terms of self-concept of a mentally healthy person is consistent with his/her thoughts, experiences, and behavior. However, people may maintain a self-concept that is at odds with their true feelings to win the approval of others and "fit in," either socially or professionally. This has been supported by Patricia Linville (1985), a complex self-concept leads to more stability in affect or emotion, which is associated with better mental health (Hutt, 2009). Indeed, throughout the next epoch of study whether among Children in Conflict with the Law (CICL) or alike, self-concept was examined to emphasize both internal characteristics and external influences. Thus, the cases' experiences either successes or failures are closely related to the ways the participants learned to view themselves and with others. Self-concept even perceives as personal self, social self and self-ideal based on the described cases of the participants residing in Bahay Kalinga. It is also becoming clear that self-concept has possible assumptions that it can be learned, organized, and dynamic. Whereas, the self-image competence deals with cognitive construction corresponding to the opinion that each of us is subject to on the cognitive, social, and physical levels, and the interactive feeling of self-esteem (Meffre, 2005). Another, self-esteem serves as the evaluative and affective aspects of the self. It also describes how "good" or "bad" an individual feel about himself (International Encyclopedia of Marriage and Family, 2003). These self-feelings make self-esteem important both experientially to constitute some of our strongest emotions and motivationally to seek positive self-feelings and to avoid negative self-feelings Tice (1993). Despite of vast researches about self, there were no qualitative research that highlighted the CICL's stance focusing on the their attributes and personology patterns.
Thus, the study is limited to: (1) Bahay Kalinga that caters CICL within Cavite and its nearby provinces and cities, (2) the norms of the CICL profiles aside from nature of offending, age, sex, SES, educational level, family size and type among CICL in CALABARZON area; and (3) the other measures of personology of self.

Conclusion
Findings showed empirical evidences supportive of the information to identify the bases of being CICL using their profile and personology types.
Nevertheless, it appears that central to concern are the multiple discourses that exist about CICL's adaptability and social reconstruction in the context of their behavior. Undoubtedly, the participants' stance beyond adaptability served as a basis of societal acceptance. Although, every CICL has the power or freedom to make their own choices not to commit any form of offense, with responsibility to control and ensure that individuals are able to act accordingly and still determined to change.