|
|||||
|
| Home | About Us | Site Map | State Directory | Schools | Books | Advertise | Contact | Recommend Us | Donate | |
|||||
|
A guide to realizing if your child is at-risk, displaying self-destructive behaviors, and needs your help and intervention.
|
Behavior Problems and Behavioral Disorders
How can you tell if your teen's behavior is a problem? Could it be just 'normal teenage rebellion'?
Is it a behavioral disorder such as Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), a pattern of negative, defiant and disobedient behavior, or Conduct Disorder, where your child repeatedly and persistently violates rules and the rights of others without concern or empathy?
Perhaps the most important questions for parents to consider are,
How much distress, disruption, and heartache are your child's problems causing?
How are your child's problems affecting the family, your marriage, you, the child himself/herself?
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision of the American Psychiatric Association defines oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) as a recurrent pattern of negativistic, defiant, disobedient, and hostile behavior toward authority figures that persists for at least 6 months.
Behaviors included in the definition are the following:
ODD is usually diagnosed when a child has a persistent or consistent pattern of disobedience and hostility toward parents, teachers, or other adults. The primary behavioral difficulty is the consistent pattern of refusing to follow commands or requests by adults.
Children with ODD often are
The criteria for ODD are met only when the problem behaviors occur more frequently in the child than in other children of the same age and developmental level. These behaviors cause significant difficulties with family and friends, and the oppositional behaviors are the same both at home and in school. Sometimes, ODD may be a precursor of a conduct disorder.
Risk factors for teen behavior problems include:
Family instability, including economic stress, parental mental illness, harshly punitive behaviors, inconsistent parenting practices, multiple moves, and divorce may also contribute to the development of oppositional and defiant behaviors.
ODD is not diagnosed if the problematic behaviors occur exclusively with a mood or psychotic disorder
The following interventions have been used to help replace defiant, oppositional behavior with responsible behavior:
In addition, the following parenting strategies are helpful:
|
Boundaries with Teens: When To Say Yes, How To Say No by John Townsend
The Way of the Wild Heart: A Map for the Masculine Journey by John Eldredge
More Information
Adolescent Risk-Taking ~ Adolescent risk-taking only becomes negative when the risks are dangerous and damaging to self and others. Healthy risks -- often understood as 'challenges' -- can turn unhealthy risks in a more positive direction, or prevent them from ever taking place.
Alcohol and Drug Abuse, Gambling Behavior in Youth: Why We Should Be Concerned ~ There are reasons to be concerned about the current prevalence of gambling, particularly among youths and their families. Gambling behavior begins during childhood and adolescence. Correlates of problem gambling include poor academic achievement, truancy, being a male, regular drug use, delinquency, progression to further problematic gambling behavior, and problematic parental gambling.
The Broad Continuum of Conduct and Behavioral Problems (pdf) ~ Information from the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Children and Lying ~ Information from the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.
Compulsive Lying ~ There are some fundamental reasons for compulsive lying: fear, habit, modeling, and overpredicting a reaction. Lying is a behavior learned in childhood.
Do Kids Have Too Much Power? ~ Baby boomers -- history's most indulged generation -- are setting new records when it comes to indulging their kids.
Father's Drinking Predicts Kids' Disruptive Behavior ~ Fathers who report consuming a large amount of alcohol at one time are more likely to have children who have behavioral problems and substance or alcohol addictions.
The Highly Prized Child ~ Pampered, privileged, and petulant, who are these children in charge and what are the best methods for parents and therapists to work with them?
Living and Teaching Right From Wrong ~ Young people growing up in today's culture have lost their sense of right and wrong as they grow up in the world without a clear sense of moral direction. They seek to find their way on their own, only to be molded and shaped by a postmodern media culture and circle of peers, equally lost and confused.
Loving Your Prodigal ~ What can parents do when your child turns his or her back on the family's values and faith?
Mis-Diagnosis and Dual Diagnosis of Gifted Children ~ Many gifted and talented children (and adults) are being misdiagnosed by mental health professionals. The most common misdiagnoses are: ADHD, ODD, OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), and mood disorders (such as depression and bipolar disorder).
Oppositional Defiant Disorder ~ The following three classes of behavior constitute hallmarks of both oppositional and conduct problems: (1) noncompliance with commands, (2) emotional overreaction to life events, no matter how small, and (3) failure to take responsibility for one's own actions.
Parent Abuse: The Abuse of Parents by Their Teenage Children (pdf) ~ Parent abuse is any harmful act by a teenage child intended to gain power and control over a parent. The abuse can be physical, psychological, or financial.
The Simple Scoop on Boundaries ~ Having boundaries is about taking control of your life -- your feelings, attitudes, thoughts, behaviors, choices, limits, talents, thoughts, desires, love, and values. These must come under your control in order for life to work.
Solutions to Oppositional Defiant Disorder ~ It is important to use the authority vested in us as parents to establish consistent limits and consequences, and to distinguish boundaries within the family.
Spoiling, not chemistry, root of teen tantrums ~ Extend a child's dependency indefinitely and pamper, indulge, and otherwise "spoil" the child throughout his/her extended dependency, and you're likely to wind up with a toddler in a teenager's body.
Stereotypes of troublemaking kids off the mark ~ "Hanging out" and failing in school are far more likely to predict which teens get in trouble than income, ethnic group, and having a single parent.
Suburban Blues ~ Money does not equal happiness, especially for the young. Affluent kids suffer higher rates of depression, but time with family can help.
When Inappropriate Behavior is Just Plain Wrong ~ It's absolutely critical that we are willing to use a moral language with kids when discussing the consequences of their behavior. There are such things as good and bad behaviors — not just choices that lead to instrumental consequences, such as being popular and getting along. Some actions are wrong no matter what. Even if everyone in school thought that stealing was the coolest thing in the world, it would still be wrong.
When Your Teen Rejects Your Values ~ God does not hold us responsible for all of our teenager's actions. But He does hold us accountable for the way in which we relate to them as parents -- with unconditional love, but uncompromising commitment to responsible maturity.
Why Kids and Teens Steal ~ Whatever the underlying cause (e.g., peer pressure, need, desire, anger, drug use), if stealing is becoming a habit, parents should speak with a doctor or therapist to get to the underlying issue.
|
|||
|
|
|||||
| Home | About Us | Site Map | State Directory | Schools | Books | Advertise | Contact | Recommend Us | |
|||||
