Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study Using SMC on Wellbeing of Students Enduring Difficult Situations

Abstract

This study examines how disrupted intrapersonal communication from conflict and migration affects student well-being and proposes the Sadharanikaran School Counseling Technique (SSCT) to foster emotional connectedness (sahridayata) using the Sadharanikaran Model of Communication (SMC). The study is conducted in two phases within a five-year interval using a longitudinal time frame. The first role of intrapersonal communication in the human development of the research participants facing difficult life situations, such as conflict and international migrant workers leaving behind families, is articulated using the theoretical framework of SMC. The first phase of the study was conducted in 2019, and the second phase was conducted in 2025. It attempts to trace the effect of Maoist insurgency (1996 to 2006) leading to international migrant workers in the wellbeing of children of those families who are studying from school to university level. In the first phase, the findings of the study show that these children have self-harming tendencies due to disconnection from parents and overindulgence in digital media, hindering intrapersonal communication. This has led to drug abuse, suicidal tendencies, hyper-reaction, and anxiety in them. Institutional intervention of family, school, rehab, and other support mechanisms is an urgent need to ensure their well-being, yet the stakeholders seem disconnected from them. The second phase of the study attempts to bring some theoretical insights to resolve this issue for the well-being of research participants using communication as a tool. Sadharanikaran School Counseling Technique (SSCT), derived from the Sadharanikaran Media Analysis Technique (SMAT), is proposed here to assess the Sahridayata between the students experiencing difficult life conditions and the school counselor who supports them to cope with it in a teaching-learning context.