Examines conduct disorder, the nation's most costly mental health
problem which affects millions of schoolkids. Characteristics of
disorder; Reasons it defies attempts at therapy; Comments from Yale
psychologist Alan E. Kazdin; Studies; Keeping symptoms under control;
Details.
By
PT Staff, published on March 01, 1993
ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR
QUICK. NAME THE NATION'S most costly mental health problem.
It's conduct disorder. And millions of schoolkids have it They am
highly antisocial, often interpreting neutral events, such as being
bumped into, as acts of hostility. They am given to violence, cruelly,
vandalism, stealing, truancy, sexual activity, and running away from
home. Those who have it carry misery with them, often becoming adult
criminals - and passing destructive behavioral patterns on to their
children.
The disorder defies most attempts at therapy, probably because it's
embedded in a constellation of problems affecting family as well as
child. Typically, parents are themselves dysfunctional, by circumstances
or depression, lacking skills in child-rearing and dealing in harsh, even
violent, but ineffective discipline.
Yet Yale psychologist Alan E. Kazdin believes he can make a dent.
In a study of 97 kids, ages 7 to 13, he found that treating both parents
and children could make improvements detectable in the kids up to a year
later. Such combined produced greater and longer-lasting results than
treating either parents or children alone.
Children were taught problem solving skills. They learned how to
generate options for interpreting and dealing with specific. They learned
responses that were nonviolent and rehearsed them. Parents were
individually trained in the same skill& They also learned how to
their children's forts, and how discipline consistently without resorting
to physical means.
Kazdin and his colleagues looked at 46 of the 76 kids who completed
therapy. After combined treatment only 8 of 20 kids were still seriously
misbehaving, compared with 11 of 15 who got child-only treatment and 9 of
11 in parent-only training. A year later, half of the combined group were
seriously misbehaving compared with 13 of 15 in the child-only group and
10 of 11 in the parent-only group.
"Far from viewing our therapy as a cure," says Kazdin, it is more
accurate to view it as treatment that, like insulin for diabetics, helps
keep symptoms under control." A shot in the arm.
ILLUSTRATION: (WHITNEY SHERMAN)
Tags:
adult criminals,
alan e kazdin,
antisocial behavior,
behavioral patterns,
combined group,
conduct disorder,
constellation,
forts,
kids ages,
mental health problem,
neutral events,
parents,
problem solving skills,
running away from home,
schoolkids,
sexual activity,
vandalism
