RSS
Home
Study states obvious: Misbehaving teens may be at risk for major adulthood problems
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
.JPG)
The Medical Research Council released a study which shows Misbehaving teens may be at risk for major adulthood problems.
Duh.
That's like saying if you have allergies as a kid you are likely to have them as an adult.
Why am I being so flippant? It's because most kids don't get treatment or help for their conduct disorders. They get incarceration, expulsion, detention.
This study followed kids at ages 13 and 15 and then tracked them for 40 years. Granted, it started in 1961, and perhaps different criteria were used than if we started the study today. However, it's still quite significant. A professor (Vaughn Rickert) from Columbia University School of Public Health said, "...the period from age 14 to 26 is when people are at the greatest risk for psychiatric disease....On the whole, the results of the study are not surprising.... Certainly there is a relationship between how you behave in adolescence, and as it's left uncorrected and unchecked by your environment, you're going to continue to engage in those behaviors because those behaviors get reinforced...."
In this study the behaviors they looked at included disobedience, lying, lack of punctuality, restlessness, truancy, daydreaming in class and poor response to discipline. Today those behaviors could be classified from the normal range all the way through psychosis. However, I still think the study is significant. It was completed in the United Kingdom, but certainly translate well to the US.
What to do? Of course I'm going to say these kids need help. Funding is the problem, or lack of it I should say. But there are tons of grants out there ripe for the picking. Some of them are difficult to obtain and some are easier. My agency just received two small grants, one is for us to assist kids who are at risk of the juvenile justice system.
At all costs we must help kids before they end up in jail. What can you do? Any ideas? The conversation continues with you.
Note: Click on the Subscribe button below and you'll receive an email each time the Chicago Mental Health Examiner publishes a new article.
...you might also like:
Related Articles:
Comments
