Reid, John B., Patterson, Gerald R., & Snyder, James. Antisocial Behavior in Children and Adolescents: a Developmental Analysis and Model for Intervention

Adolescence, Spring, 2004

REID, John B., PATTERSON, Gerald R., & SNYDER, James. Antisocial Behavior in Children and Adolescents: A Developmental Analysis and Model for Intervention. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2002. 339pp. $49.95 (h).

Modern theories of child development say that, to understand aggressive behavior, we must look within the child. This volume says otherwise: to change aggressive behavior, we must change the environment in which the child lives. Antisocial Behavior in Children and Adolescents lays out empirically proven approaches to reducing the occurrence and severity of antisocial behavior, beginning in the earliest years of childhood. Written for an audience of applied researchers, clinical practitioners, community activists, and policy makers, this edited volume summarizes ongoing work at the Oregon Social Learning Center. Using coercion theory as an organizing framework, the book distills over thirty years of thinking and research at the center. Antisocial behavior is seen as progressing from dysfunctional parent-toddler interactions to similar interactions with teachers, peers, and others in the child's environment. The contributors make a powerful argument for an approach that pinpoints the antecedents of antisocial behavior all the way from toddlerhood through adolescence.