Conduct Disorder – Antisocial In It’s True Sense

One type of behavior disorder that has been constantly increasing prevalence within the past years is Conduct Disorder. Children as young as nine years can be diagnosed with this disorder, which exhibits itself with troublesome or antisocial behavior in the child, that persists for a long period of time.

Being antisocial is often misconstrued by a lot of people as a person who doesn’t like to be in a crowd or those who tend to shy away from people. However, antisocial behavior is actually actions being destructive towards oneself, as well as other people. This type of behavior violates the existing standards and norms set by the society. And antisocial behavior is what Conduct Disorder’s all about.

According to recent studies, an estimated 5% of children show signs of conduct problems, which are characterized by being aggressive, overactive, and violent. Boys are more likely to have Conduct Disorder than girls. In general, young children and adolescents usually go through this stage of truancy, but it lessens over time. If the aggressive and destructive behavior lasts for more than 2 years and has no signs of decreasing, then the child or adolescent is already a candidate for having Conduct Disorder.

The causes of Conduct Disorder are may be environmental or neuropsychological. Children growing up under harsh environment such as having abusive parents/caregivers, disadvantaged neighborhood, low socioeconomic status, or mixing with other delinquent children may result to conduct problems. However, studies also show that children diagnosed with Conduct Disorder seem to have an impairment in the frontal lobe of the brain, the part which we use to avoid harm, learn from negative experiences, and plan ahead. Children with difficult temperament are more likely to develop Conduct Disorder.

The symptoms of Conduct Disorder may be found in people that do not really have it. As was mentioned above, almost everyone goes though an aggressive stage in their lives. But if the behavior happens more often, over a long stretch of time, and affects the social interactions, learning, and school adjustments of the child, then it may already be Conduct Disorder. The four major symptoms are the following: aggressive conduct, deceitfulness, destructive conduct, and rule-breaking. Aggression includes bullying, fights, forcing people, intimidating others, and such. Deceit may refer to thieving, lying, and delinquency. Other mischievous attitude, playing pranks, and truancy are all under the Rule Violation section. Proper diagnosis should be done by a physician or psychiatric people, since these symptoms can also be present in other behavior problems.

Like most behavior issues, Conduct Disorder may be treated via therapy and/or medication. Cognitive behavioral therapy involves creating problem-focused solutions toward the problem itself. Anger Management is one kind of a cognitive-behavioral therapy. Another is peer group and family therapy, which tries to help the child or adolescent in improving social skills and interacting with family and friends. The physician may go for medication, especially if other symptoms such as depression, are present.

As they say, prevention is better than cure, so in order to prevent Conduct Disorder with young people, parents really need to be cooperative and supportive in bringing up their children. Though many factors affect this kind of disorder, a child that has a good foundation built on trust, love, and support from his or her family and friends, may less likely be an antisocial in the future.