Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education in the Department of Educational Psychology, University of Zululand, 1993. / The aim of this study was: * To describe the inadequate self—actualization of the psychic life of the child due to the influence of violence. * To describe changes in society that have caused a breakdown in the pedagogic relationship between parents and children. * To determine, from the findings obtained, certain guidelines according to which accountable support could be instituted in order to meet the needs of the under—actualized child. The study primarily attempts to outline current thinking and research on how violence effects the under—actualizing of the child. The high incidence of violence marked by its intensity and severity in societies, has been a cause of great concern to educationists. Various studies of strife torn areas like Northern Ireland, Israel, etc., indicate that where societies have been exposed to the culture of violence for some decades, the quality of life in those areas is marginalized. Where violence 1ingers on, it is characterized by its appeal to the "youth population" predominantly, and the children unfortunately bear the brunt of its corrosive scourge. The Republic of South Africa has been no exception, where the Black townships and rural areas have been plagued and entrapped by the culture of violence since 1976. In the life of a Black child the educational environment is beset by a variety of impediments that emanate from rapid social changes that have broken down his traditional cultural structures - The ensuing violence disintegrated all forms of the fami1ial anchorage and the priceless parent-chi Id relationship of love, understanding, trust and authority. From the study it becomes clear that the onslaught of the dynamics of social change and violence have a deleterious effect on the quality of the upbringing of the child- From a psycho pedagogic perspective the impeded child finds himself in a dysfunctional educational situation because he lacks responsible parental or adult assistance and guidance toward his difficult goal of attaining adulthood. This implies that the psychic life of the impeded child is under-actualized where there is no adult intervention based on the principle of understanding, trust and authority underpinned by caring love. The child's exposure and predisposition to the culture of violence blunts the child’s perceptions and feelings, and as he becomes desensitized, he lacks understanding the true realities of life. As the child needs self—confidence and a sense of worthiness, he regards himself as a failure. To neutralize these perplexing factors in the child's life, accountable support systems for him and his parents are the mast expedient forms of intervention. Meaningful intervention by the school guidance tutor (counselor) or the personnel from the Educational Psychological Support Services or the school social workers who can pool their support programmes and rehabilitative strategies to restore the child * s and his parents' confidence, the parents must be fully involved in the rehabilitative projects in the school and in the community. They must liaise with pupils, teachers, and members of the community. In the light of the findings of this study, the following was recommended: * Cultural leaders must re-establish and meaning¬fully faster efficient functioning of the nuclear family. * Educational Psychological Support Services (EPSS) must be established and earnestly developed in al1 Black schools. * All politicians and members of the clergy should forthwith, desist from interfering and delaying the implementation of a culture of learning.