Commentary: antisocial behaviour--multidetermined across cultures.

Abstract

Violent and other antisocial behaviours among youth are of great public concern in many countries. Gudlaugsdottir and colleagues’ 1 study of Icelandic youths found that violent behaviours were associated with variables in multiple domains, including individual, family, and school. As described by the authors, these findings suggest that interventions for youth violent behaviour should target the multiple factors in the youths’ social ecology that might contribute to violent behaviour. Consistent with this premise, the most effective treatments for serious youth antisocial behaviour are those that address the multiple determinants of youth problem behaviour. The Blueprints for Violence Prevention Report 2 that reviewed more than 500 programmes designed to treat and prevent youth antisocial behaviour identified only 3 that were effective at reducing criminal behaviour: Functional Family Therapy, Multisystemic Therapy, and Oregon Treatment Foster Care. These three treatments are family-based ecological models that focus on addressing the known risk factors for antisocial behaviour in youths across their social ecology (for review see ref. 3). Gudlaugsdottir and colleagues’ 1 findings also have implications for the generalizability of theories about the development of adolescent antisocial behaviour. They found that violent behaviour among Icelandic youths was associated with gender, difficulty of obtaining social support from parents, substance use, psychological distress, and negative life events. With the exception of the failure to document significant effects in the peer domain (which likely occurred because the peer variables in this study did not tap deviant peer associations), these findings are generally consistent with the correlates of violent behaviour documented in US studies. 4 Accordingly, the key determinants of antisocial behaviour may be similar across Icelandic and American cultures. Nevertheless, it should not be