Conduct Disorder

As previously mentioned, conduct disorder is a psychiatric problem that affects children and adolescents. It is also the most common psychiatric problem diagnosed amongst children. The American Psychiatric Association states that conduct disorders are different from other psychiatric disorders based on the following criteria: “persistent pattern of behavior in which the basic rights of others or major age-appropriate societal norms or rules are violated” (2000). I wanted to find out what the most common signs of conduct disorder were for elementary level children and read several articles about the disorder to do so. Many articles spoke about the common signs of the disorder in adolescents, but I will only mention the signs that affect younger children. The common signs that I found are:

-deliberate property damage or destruction

-persistent lying to avoid consequences or to gain privileges

-limited interpersonal skills

-little to no friends

-low self esteem, however they portray a high self esteem on the outside

-bullying, threatening, or intimidating others

-lack of remorse and guilt

-lashing out aggressively to parents, friends, or teachers

There are many other signs that a child with conduct disorder may possess, yet these are the ones that made the most sense to me. I was so saddened to think about such young children being so destructive and causing harm to themselves and/or others. At first, I couldn’t think of ever witnessing children that portrayed anything related to conduct disorder, but as I furthered my research I was able to think of several different circumstances where I have witnessed this type of behavior. However, just because a child shows one of the signs of conduct disorder does not mean he or she has it. I will admit that I am guilty of lying (just once or twice my whole life, of course!) to avoid punishment when I was younger but I have never been thought to have conduct disorder, nor have I ever done anything such as the signs listed above.  

During a study conducted about reducing stressors relating to teacher-student relationship, Dr. Ray (2007) compared the impact of child-centered play therapy, teacher interaction only and a combination of teacher-child relationship. The results were statistically significant for each treatment group, the indication was school based play therapy intervention was more effective in facilitating a positive rapport between the teacher and child. The website: http://www.goliath.ecnext.com/coms2 provides a more in depth document about the research that was done by Dr. Ray. It was reported that school-based mental health interventions have a positive effect on academic and mental health progress for children. The interventions were more productive when received long-term and addressed multiple needs in the child’s lives.

After reviewing the study done about improving the relationship between teachers and students, I am actually more nervous about having a child with this disorder in my classroom because of how severe this disorder can be. A child that has been diagnosed with a severe conduct disorder could potentially affect the demeanor of my classroom and all of the other students. I am now wondering the specifics of what teachers can do to support these students and maintain a positive relationship with the child and the family.

Resources:

American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual

of mental disorders (4^th ed. Text Revision). Washington D.C.: Author.

Ray, D. (2007). Two counseling interventions to reduce teacher-child relationship

Stress {Electronic version}. Professional School Counseling, 10(4), 428-440.