New path for aggressive boys

NEA Today, Oct 1998 by Large, Rena

Dr. Dorothy Otnow Lewis, author of Guilty by Reason of Insanity: A Psychiatrist Explores the Minds of Killers ($25, Fawcett Columbine), is professor of psychiatry at the New York University School of Medicine and clinical professor at the Yale University Child Study Center She spoke with Rena Large of the NEA Health Information Network on male aggression.

Are boys more aggressive than girls?

Yes. Much. Males in our country are about nine times as homicidal as females.

Male aggression cannot be entirely explained sociologically. In most animal species, males are more aggressive. Androgens affect brain structure and function. Female mice placed in utero between two males are more aggressive than other females, ostensibly because of greater exposure in utero to male hormones.

But most boys and most men are not violent. Unfortunately, mental illness and neurological impairment in boys and men are more likely to be manifested in aggressive behaviors.

How can we best help these overaggressive boys?

So many boys who are aggressive but have potentially treatable disorders are dismissed as simply conduct disordered or incarcerated rather than diagnosed and treated properly.

Conduct disorder is often a lazy diagnosis. Educators and therapists must learn to recognize the fact that almost every serious psychiatric disorder of childhood can manifest itself by aggressive behavior.

Disturbed children are rarely articulate about their psychological pain and have only a small repertoire of behaviors with which to show hurt. One of the most common causes of repeated aggressive behaviors in children is the paranoid misperception of being endangered or disrespected.

One cannot simply dismiss aggressive behavior as being "bad:'

Can schools keep aggressive behavior from developing?

Educators are in excellent positions to recognize when children are headed for trouble.

For example, when children of normal intelligence have trouble concentrating, fail to do their work, and get into hassles with peers and teachers, they are telling you that they are having difficulty coping with some sorts of stressors. The stressors may be intrinsic, environmental, or a combination of both.

Negative changes in student performance or school attendance are also clues that something is going wrong in that student's life.

Once a troubled student is spotted, what then?

Unfortunately, when students-specially boys-are referred for psychological evaluation, these kinds of behavioral changes are often dismissed as simply oppositional behaviors or as attention-deficit hyperactivity, and medication alone is prescribed.

These kinds of behaviors require careful, sophisticated assessmentsnot just of the child's functioning, but also of the stresses within the household.

Can we help students who have already come in violent conflict with the law?'

Of course we can. When the psychological, medical, educational, and family vulnerabilities contributing to a child's aggression are addressed, behavior improves. Pills alone won't do it.

And children and adolescents with problems with aggression usually need ongoing treatment and support systems. Even the finest multifaceted treatment for aggressive children will fail it if ceases after a year or two and the child is abandoned once more.

Our society needs to find effective ways of supporting and sustaining such children so that they can acquire the education and life skills to function as independent adults.

Resources

The Benton Foundation Kids Campaigns Web site provides information on fostering children's mental health and development and providing adequate treatment for problems. The site also serves as an information center for educators, parents, community leaders, and other children's advocates, providing

Internet links and documents on community action to protect children. Visit the Web at www.kidscampaigns.org.

NEA's Safe Schools Manual reviews the research on school violence and offers detailed guidelines on how the school, the family, and the community can work together to make schools safe

havens for learning. For a free copy, visit the Web at www.nea.org/issues/ safescho/. Or write to NEA Human and Civil Rights, 1201 16th St., N.W., Washington, DC 20036.

For a review of new books on raising boys, see page 49 of this issue of NEA Today.