Conduct Disorder

Conduct Disorder

As immediately as infancy, children express individual characteristics that can be considered aggressive. The child can be aggressive in the way it cries, the way it plays and the way it attains attention. Parents of children that have a hard time sleeping through the night, trouble accepting affection and/or difficulties with hyperactivity are often so stressed and bothered by these behaviors that they resort to negative reinforcement techniques in their parenting. Examples of this can be seen in spanking, harsh reprimanding or even ignoring the child’s behaviors. By using negative reinforcement, the parents are unknowingly strengthening the prevalence of these behaviors, and therefore, the risk of these types of activities to continue through adolescence is also heightened (Patterson, 1982).

Children who tend to not comply with authority in infancy have a greater chance of having an aggressive temperament in adolescence (Kolvin, Nicol, Garside, Day & Tweedle, 1982; Olweus, 1980; Webster-Stratton & Eyberg, 1982). Therefore, as “difficult” children become adolescents, they present an even greater challenge for their parents, school officials, law enforcement and the community. Often ignored is the biggest challenge, which is the child dealing with this instability of his or her mental well-being. We will see in the research provided that conduct disorder is multifaceted, consisting of some components which are hard to conceptualize and of others that are common knowledge. However, each aspect is crucial in understanding the scope of this mental disorder, starting with its history of violence and ending with its lacking intervention.

Conduct Disorder is the most common psychiatric disorder in childhood, affecting approximately 7% of boys and 3 % of girls in the general population (Meltzer, Gatward, Goodman, Ford, 2000). Unlike most mental disorders, which afflict solely the diagnosed party, conduct disorder has serious implications for both the subject and the rest of society. Violence, over aggressiveness, and inappropriate behavior, such as stealing and drug and/or alcohol abuse, are all frequently expressed characteristics of the disorder, however, it is not, by far, limited to these three alone (Campbell, 1990). With an immense array of characteristics, from antisocial behaviors having to do with the viola...

... middle of paper ...

... Epidemiological approaches to natural history research: Antisocial disorders in children. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 20, 566-680.

Rosenblatt, J. A., Rosenblatt, A., & Biggs, E. E. (2000). Criminal behavior and emotional disorder: Comparing youth served by the mental health and juvenile systems. The Journal of Behavioral Health Services and Research, 27, 227-237.

Sampson, R. J., & Laub, J. H. (1997). A life-course theory of cumulative disadvantage and the stability of delinquency. In T. P. Thornberry (Ed.), Developmental theories of crime and delinquency. New Jersey: Transaction. (pp. 133-161).

Steiner, H., Garcia, I., & Matthews, Z. (1997). Posttraumatic stress disorder in incarcerated juvenile delinquents. Journal of American Academy for Child Adolescent Psychiatry, 36, 357-365.

Tolan, P. H. (1987). Implications of age of onset delinquency risk. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 15, 47-65.

Webster-Stratton, C., & Eyeberg, S.M. (1982). Child temperament:Relationship with child behavior problems and parent-child interactions. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 11, 123-129.