Many of us remember the messy students in the class. Those who snatched, fought during breaks and started smoking early. Some of these were simply normally defiant and now live a good and quiet life as adults. But for a few, it was an early warning sign of risky behavior that then led on to a life marked by crime.
Despite and teenage quarrels are normal
Almost all teenagers have a tendency to break rules and norms in society. It is considered completely normal. Björn Hofvander, a psychologist and associate professor of forensic psychiatry, has two teenagers at home, but thinks that the teenage quarrels – just like in most families – fall within the normal range. But 1–5 percent of all children have a serious outspoken behavior, the first signs of which can be detected as early as one year of age. As these children get older, they often have major problems with behavior, mental illness, negative relationships, and eventually crime.
– Defiant behavior occurs in almost all children. You do not want to wear overalls, want ice cream in the store or do not intend to go home from kindergarten. But children in the risk group are more frequent in their aggression and many of their interactions with both children and adults are characterized by anger. It is not an age of defiance that passes, but a constant outreach that escalates as the child gets older, says Björn Hofvander.
Link to mental illness and crime
His research is about investigating how early aggression can be linked to crime and mental illness later in life. Among other things, he follows 270 young adults who have been sentenced to prison for violent crimes. All are men with poor impulse control, difficulties with relationships and aggressive behavior. The excess mortality is very strong – five years after the start of the study, a majority of the participants died through suicide, violent crime or overdoses.
– I think that aggression has an overly hidden role in psychiatry, where there is a tendency to look at extravagant behavior as a purely legal issue or – if the person is not a criminal – that you ball over the problem to the social services.
Risk factors for falling into crime
- Heredity and male sex
- Insecure family relationships (poverty, crime, substance abuse, mental illness)
- Parenting patterns with compelling, authoritarian style and physical coercion
- Physical and mental trauma
- Competition with several siblings of the same age
- Negative peer relationships – few or wrong friends
- Growing up in criminally charged residential areas
- ADHD in combination with behavioral problems
- Abuse
- Deviations and delayed maturation in the nervous system
- Cognitive and affective risk factors
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Boys seem to have genetic vulnerability
There are no studies that show that aggression has generally increased in Sweden in recent years. However, our tolerance for aggressive children has decreased and we no longer explain away their behavior with “this is how boys do”. Compared with girls, it seems that boys have an increased genetic vulnerability, which increases the risk of adverse events from the fetal stage onwards, says Björn Hofvander.
The reasons behind a difficult outspoken behavior are a combination of genetics and a number of early adverse circumstances. To have a chance to stop the downward spiral, parents must get help early, and research shows that they have the greatest chance of reaching these children before the age of eight. If different actors, such as child and adolescent psychiatry (bup) and social services, work together, there are great opportunities to change the future of these children.
Studies are ongoing in Malmö’s schools
– To a normally functioning child you can say “tighten up”, but for a child with special needs this of course does not work. They have already heard this for many years without success. However, there are efforts that can be made depending on the children’s difficulties. Right now, for example, we are conducting a preventive study in Malmö’s schools to make teachers better. By treating students in a clearer way, helping them with social skills and simplifying everyday life, the conditions can be changed for children with difficulties.
Cost for society and individual
Once the children reach adolescence, it is difficult to reach them because they are in other arenas where parents and other adults do not have transparency. Nor are they themselves interested in changing their behavior. The characteristics of individuals also drive them towards risky environments, which further puts them in destructive situations.
– It is extremely frustrating to meet children in child psychiatry who could have received better help with the right efforts. These children cost society enormous resources, not to mention the suffering that each individual brings with them from exclusion, failure and mental illness. Therefore, it is extremely important to gain knowledge about the actual reasons behind a child’s aggressive behavior in order to be able to make the right efforts at an early stage, Björn Hofvander concludes.
Text: Åsa Hansdotter
The article has previously been published in Lund University’s magazine, LUM
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