The Relationship Between Childhood Deviance and Adult Deviance

Disruptive Behavior Disorders. Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), conduct disorder (CD), and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) form a cluster of childhood disorders considered to be “disruptive behavior disorders” (American Psychiatric Association, 2004). Although most violent adolescents have more than one mental disorder and they may have internalizing disorders, for example depression or substance abuse, there appear to be increasingly higher rates of physical aggression found in these adolescents who experience disruptive behavior disorders than for those with other mental disorders. The fact that violent juvenile offenders are more likely to have these diagnoses is not surprising, because impulsive and/or aggressive behaviors are part of their diagnostic criteria. Additionally, there is relatively high co-morbidity with substance abuse disorders, which are also associated with juvenile violence (Moeller, 2001). Individuals with conduct disorder have the following features but this list is not inclusive for example they may have little empathy and little concern for the feelings, wishes, and wellbeing of others, respond with aggression, may be callous and lack appropriate feelings of guilt re remorse, self-esteem may be low despite a projected

A rating scale was completed by a Parker Elementary school teacher, Mrs. Smith for 8 year old Andrea. The Disruptive Behavior Rating Scale (DBRS) consisted of 50 questions with responses with zero representing rarely/hardly ever, one representing occasionally, two representing frequently, and three representing most of the time. The scale utilized is used by clinical professionals for diagnostic purposes of four different areas for behavior concerns these include: distractible, oppositional, impulsive-hyperactivity, and antisocial conduct. The rating scale was completed on 1/31/1992.

People who suffer from personality disorders often display deviant behavior. The mental illness itself is not deviant. They typically have problems with social skills, mood swings, emotional states, and are often unable to maintain healthy, stable relationships. Many sufferers do not possess the capability to have genuine emotions, including empathy for others. A personality disorder is the basis of many circumstances of maladaptive behavior including substance abuse, self-harm, suicide, and criminality.

As early as preschool, teachers, principals, counselors, and psychiatrist, are commonly known to label an African-American child (i.e. boys) with ADHD and many other disorders because they are said to be hyperactive and “verve.” This, in most cases, is not always true. It may be that the stimuli around them are simply not challenging enough (p. 17), so they choose to do other activities without the authority figures approval.

There is a link between aggressive behaviour, emotional and behavioural problems and in some case learning difficulties in children young people who have experienced physical abuse. Aggressive behaviour may result in an RPI (Restrictive physical intervention) if there is a significant chance that the young person may cause harm to themselves or others. This is recorded in detail on an RPI form which allows us to identify any patterns of aggressive behaviour from the young person or notice any triggers to their behaviours. Children and adolescents who have suffered emotional abuse are likely to have long-term mental health problems, behavioural problems and low self-esteem as a result of the abuse they

Evidence indicates that genetic factors may play a role in development of disruptive behavior disorders (Hansell & Damour, 2005). A biological structure of an infant’s brain has preposition genes and chemical responses to develop into an adult (Perry, 2002). Disorders in lifespan development are not biologically set to occur (Dombeck, 2010). Issues’ dealing with environment, education, and way of life has made changes in developments, childhood behavior keeps a child on a continuum between normal and abnormal behavior (Hansell & Damour, 2005). Several disorders currently exist in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV-TR) because studies on children, adolescent, and young adult disorders evolved from DSM-II (Hansell & Damour, 2005).

Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) is one of a group of behavioral disorders in the disruptive behavior disorders category. Children who have these disorders tend to be disruptive with a pattern of disobedient, hostile, and defiant behavior toward authority figures. These children often rebel, are stubborn, argue with adults, and refuse to obey. They have angry outbursts, have a hard time controlling their temper, and display a constant pattern of aggressive behaviors. ODD is one of the more common mental health disorders found in children and adolescents (AACAP, 2009). It is also associated with an increased risk for other forms of psychopathology, including other disruptive behavior disorders as well as mood or anxiety problems (Martel,

"Attention deficit and disruptive behavior disorders include three diagnoses: attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and conduct disorder. All three of these disorders are characterized by externalizing behaviors in which children "act out" and fail to conform to the behavioral standards of their homes, school, and communities" (Hansell & Damour, 2005, p.454).

There are two common type of disruptive behavior disorders that affects children lives in a negative fashion when not treated properly. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (2004) “Behaviors typical of disruptive behavior disorders can closely resemble ADHD particularly where impulsivity and hyperactivity are involved but ADHD, ODD, and CD are considered separate conditions that can occur independently. About one third of all children with ADHD have coexisting ODD, and up to one quarter have coexisting CD” .The two types of disruptive behavior disorders are oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder. Some symptoms of disruptive behavior disorder is breaking rules, defiant, argumentative, disobedient behaviors towards authority

In an article about finding an appropriate screening tool for African-American children, Flowers and McDougle (2010) mention how there is concern with the validity of behavior rating scales because most screening tools correlate the behaviors of African-American boys and girls with ADHD behaviors twice as much as other ethnic groups (pp. 372-374). With that being said, Miller et al. (2008) states that behaviors such as aggression, tantrums, and antisocial behavior frequently co-occur with ADHD. The finding from these studies lead to questions about the reliability of behavioral scales and the classification of ADHD symptoms. Catherine Tucker and Andrea Dixon (2009) also mention the high referral of African-Americans to mental health services for ADHD in their article, adding that African-American males living in poverty are the least likely to receive treatment services (pp. 309-322). Additionally, African-Americans with ADHD are under-identified due to lack of access to quality care or lack of willingness to seek treatment (Miller et al., 2008).

Symptoms of adhd are not paying attention to detail, making careless mistakes, failing to pay attention and keep on task, not listening, being unable to follow or understand instructions, being distracted, fidgeting, squirming, getting up often when seated, running, talking excessively, having trouble playing quietly, and interrupting

Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), opposition defiant disorder (ODD), and conduct disorder (CD) are three distinct disorders based upon their respective diagnostic criteria in the DSM-5. If ODD and CD were mild forms of ASPD, then there would need to be causal relationship between the childhood manifestations of ODD and CD and the adult manifestation of ASPD. There is evidence of comorbidity between ODD and CD, and also evidence to suggest that children diagnosed with these disorders may go on to develop ASPD later in life; however, correlation does not equal causation. The three disorders have subtle but important differences in their associated behaviors, underlying causes, treatment outcomes, and neurological signs.

Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) is one of the most common clinical disorders in children and adolescents (Nock, Kazdin, Hirpi & Kessler, 2007). Greene et al. (2002) defines ODD as “a recurrent pattern of developmentally inappropriate levels of negativistic, defiant, disobedient, and hostile behavior toward authority figures”. ODD primarily consists of stubborn (e.g., tantrums) and aggressive behaviors that the child attempts to rationalize based on the circumstances rather than view as consequential and problematic (Kazdin, 2010). Therefore, ODD can have serious implications for the child’s functioning at home, in school, and in the community, so parents of children with ODD are more likely to utilize child mental health services (Kazdin, 2010). The history, symptoms, diagnosis, prevalence, age of onset, duration, risk factors, comorbidity, and treatments of ODD will be discussed, as well as the rationale behind the revisions from the fourth (DSM-IV) to fifth editions (DSM-5) of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

The individual with oppositional defiant disorder will easily lose his temper; is regularly defiant or refuses to comply with the rules or requests set by adults; often argues with adults; usually and deliberately bothers people; will blame everyone else for their behavior and mistakes; is generally angry, resentful, spiteful or vindictive; and is often touchy or easily annoyed by the actions or inactions of others. The diagnosis for oppositional defiant disorder is considered only when the behavior occurs more frequently than it is usually observed in individuals of a comparable developmental level and similar age. The conduct of the adolescent and the conflicts he may have with adults will vary from the inevitable clash that may exist between teenagers and parents/authority figures. While normal conflict or rebellion may be a temporary or isolated incident, oppositional defiant disorder occurs when such conflict becomes severe and out of control. Moreover, in order for the diagnosis to be made, this disturbing behavior must cause significant issues at the personal, academic, professional, and social levels. Oppositional defiant disorder shouldn’t be diagnosed if the medical professional suspects that the behavior is being directly caused by another psychological disorder such

Deviance among adolescents in our society has many different causes and multiple theories throughout the history of criminal justice have been developed to attempt to explain, prevent and reduce incidents of status offenses and juvenile delinquency. There are theories varying from individual, to social and environmental. All of these theories have their merits and contribute in one way or another to the advancement of the understanding of juvenile delinquency and the treatment and prevention of delinquency within our society. Those that have proven to be successful we have applied in our justice system while those that are proven over time to be ineffective or defective we have discarded. There is no single theory that applies to all delinquent behavior in all situations. It is best to determine what theory may work best in each specific case based on the individual and the specific situation. Dodge’s information processing theory of social problem solving (Crick and Dodge 1994) was developed by Kenneth Dodge in an attempt to explain the interaction between the child’s cognitive development and their social environment. This theory combines elements of both the individual and the social environment and examines how these two variables interact with each other to present a model for juvenile delinquency. During my investigation of this topic I discovered that an adapted model of Dodge’s theory existed that seemed to be more encompassing of the causes of juvenile delinquency,