Barbara Maughan and colleagues at King’s College’s (London; UK) Institute of Psychiatry have been conducting longitudinal research on the development of behavior disorders. They have just published a report of a study (Title: Preadolescent Conduct Problems in Girls and Boys) that examines gender differences in the factors that predict disruptive behavior disorders. Here’s the abstract:
OBJECTIVE:: To examine sex differences in correlates of disruptive behavior disorders (DBDs) in preadolescent children using indicators of a wide range of well-established risk factors for DBDs and outcomes 3 years after initial assessment. METHOD:: Analyses were based on data for 5- to 10-year-olds (n = 5,913) from the British Child and Adolescent Mental Health Survey 1999, and a 3-year follow-up of selected subsamples (n = 1,440) at ages 8 through 13 years. DSM-IV diagnoses were assigned using the Developmental and Well-Being Assessment at both contacts. RESULTS:: Boys and girls were equally exposed to most social and family risks for DBDs, with little evidence of differential sensitivity to these risks. Boys were exposed more to neurodevelopmental difficulties, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and peer problems and had lower rates of prosocial behaviors; together, these factors and physical punishment could account for 54% of the observed sex differences in DBDs. At follow-up, outcomes for girls and boys with DBDs were very similar. For children with subthreshold conduct problems at initial assessment, boys were more likely to go on to exhibit DBDs than were girls (25% versus 7%). CONCLUSIONS:: Sex differences in the levels of a variety of child characteristics and interpersonal factors are likely to be important in understanding sex differences in risk for DBDs in preadolescent samples.
The study is published in a very prestigious source. Here’s the reference:
Messer J., Goodman R., Rowe R., Meltzer H., & Maughan B. (2006). Preadolescent conduct problems in girls and boys. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 45, 184-191.
Link to the Pub Med abstract for the study. Reviewing the full study requires a subscription the AACAP journal.
Sphere: Related Content
Over on LD Blog I’ve just posted a list of references to entries on this blog that refer to the topic of ADHD. Because there are entries on that blog that could be of interest to readers of this blog, I’m cross listing them here in chronological order.
Over her blog, Letters from Lisa, Lisa Fischler’s got a very thoughtful statement about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). She titled it “Does ADHD Exist?” and, as you might suppose, it starts with a string of the indictments that are routinely thrown at ADHD. But within two paragraphs, she’s begun to dismember and eviserate those arguments. After many insightful comments and a host of thoughtful analyses, she concludes with this paragraph:
Point being, it’s not simple, and I really dislike when people pretend it is. I think it’s disrespectful to trivialize the issues that people face when they have attention problems by saying that those problems don’t really exist, or that it’s all the fault of one thing or another. It’s so impressive what these kids (and adults too) are able to accomplish and handle, but heartbreaking when you see the misunderstanding and suffering that can come with it. Hopefully the kids I’ve worked with will grow up to have their own understanding of what ADHD means to them, and gain a sense of mastery over their own environment and destiny.
Follow this link to Does ADHD exist? on Letters from Lisa (where one can also find other sensible posts). It’s worth the read, both because it’s a sentient analysis of pop-psych babble that usually passes as argument and because it’s just dang well written.
Sphere: Related Content
A New York (US) court has ordered a education program to reinstate a teacher education student whom it had expelled ostensibly because he advocated use of corporal punishement, according the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Jennifer Jacobson
A New York appeals court has ordered Le Moyne College to reinstate Scott W. McConnell as a student in its education program, a year after the Syracuse institution expelled him for advocating the use of corporal punishment in the classroom.
The court, which issued its ruling on Wednesday, found that the college had violated Mr. McConnell’s due-process rights and its own regulations when it dismissed him from the master’s-level program. The three-page decision, which overturned a lower-court ruling, was unanimous.
In a written statement released on Thursday, Le Moyne officials said that they would abide by the ruling and that they had begun the process of appealing the decision to the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court.
Lawyers for Mr. McConnell hailed the ruling. “There is an attempt in teaching programs nationwide not only to indoctrinate the students but also to make sure only people with particular political views can graduate,” said Christopher J. Hajec, a lawyer with the Center for Individual Rights, a Washington-based advocacy group, which represented Mr. McConnell. “Whether you agree with him or not, he definitely has the right to get his degree.”
The case is one among several in which students — backed by national conservative organizations — have complained in the last year about education professors who are more interested in students’ political views than in their classroom performance (The Chronicle, December 16).
I have several wonders about this:
- Why couldn’t someone at Le Moyne explain to Mr. McConnell that there are more appropriate means for teaching students?
- Was the manner in which Mr. McConnell expressed his views inappropriate?
- Do conservatives as a group advocate corporal punishment?
The Chronicle requires subscriptions, but here’s the link anyway.
Sphere: Related Content
Depression continues to be a common problem among adolescents in the US, and it also continues to go untreated, according to a report based on the National Survey on Drug Use and Health released by the Office of Applied Studies in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) late in December. 
The proportion of adolescents reporting depression increases with age (see Figure 1).
- In 2004, 9.0 percent of adolescents aged 12 to 17 (an estimated 2.2 million adolescents) experienced at least one major depressive episode (MDE) in the past year
- Among adolescents aged 12 to 17 who reported having experienced an MDE in the past year, less than half (40.3 percent) received treatment for depression during that time
- Adolescents who had experienced a past year MDE were more than twice as likely to have used illicit drugs in the past month than their peers who had not (21.2 vs. 9.6 percent)
Pardon my choice of words, but these data are pretty depressing. I am not sure whether educators can reduce the proportion of adolescents who experience a MDE, but at the least we ought to be do a better job of helping those who do experience depression. We need to develop and implement a program that helps educators spot the signs of depression among adolescents and sensitively refer those with symptoms for services. We need to provide support and appropriate services.
Link to HTML or PDF summary of the report
Sphere: Related Content
Latest Comments
RSS