Traumatic Victimization in Childhood and Persistent Problems with Oppositional-Defiance (From Trauma and Juvenile Delinquency: Theory, Research, and Interventions, P 25-58, 2002, Ricky Greenwald, ed., -- See NCJ-198433)

• NCJ Number: 198435
• Author(s): Julian D. Ford
• Date Published: 2002
• Length: 34 pages
• Sale Source: Haworth Maltreatment and Trauma Press
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter discusses traumatic victimization as a factor in disruptive behavior disorders.

Abstract

Disruptive behavior disorders affect up to 10 percent of all children and 33 percent of those referred for psychiatric care. Almost three in four children meet criteria for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and more than 90 percent with oppositional-defiant disorder (ODD) are considered severely emotionally disturbed in the family, school, peer, and legal domains. Psychological trauma (exposure to an event involving actual or threatened death or serious injury) is biologically and emotionally shocking, potentially altering a child’s body and affecting basic emotions and personality. Traumatic victimization is highly prevalent in psychiatric samples. Several studies suggest that traumatic victimization is associated with ODD, although other factors such as genetics and environment are major factors. When traumatic victimization takes the form of coercive, violent, or severely neglectful parenting by family members or other significant individuals, a child may learn to use oppositional-defiance as a self-protective avoidance or counter-reaction. Severe oppositional-defiance involves a fundamental dysregulation of emotion and information processing. The adverse features of victimization can alter the child’s fundamental information processing, causing a closed, rigid, and pessimistic way of thinking with distrust, avoidance, and overt or covert resistance. Exposure of children to violent victimization is a public health problem that is increasingly recognized but not well understood or prevented. If a history of victimization and persistent victim coping are detected, treatment may be most effective if it directly addresses the post-traumatic symptoms and victim coping as well as the overtly disruptive behavior. Studies are needed to evaluate the benefits that accrue if prevention and treatment interventions for oppositional-deviance incorporate education and skills relevant to recovery from traumatic victimization. 160 references