Adult Deviance And Conduct Disorder Essay, Research Paper

Running Head: ADULT DEVIANCE AND CONDUCT DISORDER

The Relationship Between Childhood Deviance and Adult Deviance

William T. Mahan II

Neumann College

Psych 301: Research Methods I

November 5, 2000

Introduction

The current study is a correlation design. This design will be used to find if there is a relationship between childhood conduct problems or deviance and adult deviance. Deviance for childhood will be defined as any psychological issues, conduct problems in school, such as physical fighting or lashing out in anger to teachers or peers, deviance for adults will be defined as any form of a criminal record and any form of a psychiatric record.

Loeber, R., Green, S.L., Lahey, B.B. (2000) . Physical Fighting in Childhood as a Risk Factor for Later Mental Health Problems. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 39, 421-428.

This journal article discusses physical fighting as a child, as a risk factor for later mental health problems. In some studies of this behavior it is shown that there is a strong correlation between physical fighting as a child and adult mental health problems. In this study the author is attempting to answer three main questions.

1. Does the prevalence of boys? fighting in a clinical sample differ by informant or by age cohort? How high is the persistence of physical fighting over a 7-year period, and does it differ by age? What proportion of boys who fight stop fighting?

2. Does persistent physical fighting predict later conduct disorder and mental health problems, and are multiple informant ratings a better predictor than a single informant rating of fighting.

3. Does a combination of previously defined risk factors other than fighting better predict later mental health problems?

The authors hypothesis is that persistent physical fighting is a risk factor for later mental health problems, such as dysthymia and anxiety disorders. The authors expected that children who were in many physical fights over a period of time(7yrs.) were more likely to have mental health problems later in adulthood. The sample for this study was a longitudinal study of 177boys. These boys were gathered having disruptive behavior disorders. The participants were 7 to 12 years of age. The sample was composed of white(70%) and african-americans(30%). The procedures for this experiment were to conduct an annual assessment between 1987 and 1994. It was conducted with the boy and his parents. The test given to the participants in the interviews was a parallel version of the National Institute of Mental Health Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children(DISC.) The test was also modified to include all DSM III-R symptoms. The diagnostic procedure used 2 clinicians who independently reviewed reports of the participants symptoms. Through this study it yielded that 24.4% had ADHD, 36.6%had ODD, 12.2% had OAD, 12.2% had MDE, 10.5% had SAD, 4.1% had DYS, 2.9%, had ENU, and 1.2% had ENC. These disorders were recorded after and during the 7 year period.

In conclusion, to the study it was shown that persistent fighters of having 2 or more diagnosis during year 7 was more than 3 times higher than the prevalence among non-fighters according to the results of the reports given from the interviewers. Persistent fighters were more likely than non-fighters to have Conduct Disorder in year 7.

The present article has both strengths and weaknesses. In this article the boys were gathered from clinics where they were reported to have already had problems. This is an issue because the boys socioeconomic status was not accounted for nor was any traumatic events that might have taken place during the time of testing. Also interviewing annually leaves to much time for other variables to harm the research. The assessment was not continuous through the 7 year period. The sample was also taken from one geographical area which could skew the results considering the social and cultural differences. The data taken from this study did support the hypothesis.

There are alternative ways that some of the results could be explained such as conduct disorder as a child might be a precursor for later deviance but it could be related to more biological reasons. The conduct disorder as a child could be caused by biological reasons therefore causing the later deviance.

Kratzer, L., Hodgins, S. (1997) . Adult Outcomes of Child Conduct Problems: A Cohort Study. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology. 25, 65-81.

This study was done to look at the incidence of child conduct problems and the effects it has when the child becomes as adult. The present study tries to answer the question whether childhood conduct problems start the course for later disorders in adults. The sample was separated into three groups, those who exhibited conduct problems only at school, those who did so in the community, and those who did so in both settings. The hypothesis that the authors chose was that children with conduct problems are at high risk for major mental disorders. The authors suspect that there research will provide results proving that children with conduct problems will later develop more problems with conduct as an adult and possible major mental illnesses.

The sample in this composed of all 15, 117 persons born in Stockholm in 1953 and residing there in 1963. 94% of the participants were still alive and residing in Sweden at the end of the 30 year follow up period. The participants were reported on by their teachers on a scale of three, ranging from no problems to severe problems. The measures used in this study were as follows; Mental Disorders: The Stockholm register was screened in order to document all admissions to psychiatric wards. Social Class: The social class of the individuals family of origin was indexed using Swedish norms. Pregnancy Complications; Complications during pregnancy were scored accounting their severity. Birth Complications: Any complications during birth were also scored on account of their severity. Birth Weight: The birth weight of the participant was measured in hectograms. Family Problems: All reports of family problems were taken from the Child Welfare Committee. Individual problems: Problems such as adjustment issues were scored and taken from child welfare agencies. For the overall sample prevalence of conduct problems was low. Only 7.2% of males and 2.1% of females were scored as having conduct problems. For the criminality and mental disorders there were not only more offenders among males but more than any other group. Males identified for conduct problems in childhood, as compared to the males with no history of conduct problems, were found to be at increased risk for crime and substance abuse in adulthood. In conclusion to the study the following evidence suggests that children with conduct disorder may be at risk for major mental disorders. Other outcomes also show that children with conduct problems also have a higher incidence of criminality as an adult. Antisocial personality disorder in adulthood is almost always preceded by conduct disorder in childhood.

In this study, the data did support the researchers hypothesis that childhood conduct disorder leads to adult criminality and mental disorder. Some weaknesses do exist in this study such as biased sample by taking high risk participants and relying on self reports by adults on the child?s behavior. It is unsure that childhood conduct problems is associated with adult deviance because of the sample used. The norms for this study were good because they were set for the norms of Sweden.