High Levels Of Disruptive Behavior Research Articles

Lower amygdala fatty acid amide hydrolase in violent offenders with antisocial personality disorder: an [11C]CURB positron emission tomography study

Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) imposes a high societal burden given the repetitive reactive aggression that affected individuals perpetrate. Since the brain endocannabinoid system (ECS) has been implicated in ASPD and aggressive behavior, we utilized [11C]CURB positron emission tomography to investigate fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), an enzyme of the ECS that degrades anandamide, in 16 individuals with ASPD and 16 control participants. We hypothesized that FAAH density would be lower in the amygdala for several reasons. First, decreased FAAH expression is associated with increased cannabinoid receptor 1 stimulation, which may be responsible for amygdala hyper-reactivity in reactive aggression. Second, the amygdala is the seat of the neural circuit mediating reactive aggression. Third, other PET studies of externalizing populations show reduced brain FAAH density. Conversely, we hypothesized that FAAH expression would be greater in the orbitofrontal cortex. Consistent with our hypothesis, we found that amygdala FAAH density was lower in the amygdala of ASPD (p = 0.013). Cerebellar and striatal FAAH expression were inversely related with impulsivity (cerebellum: r = −0.60, p = 0.017; dorsal caudate: r = −0.58, p = 0.023; dorsal putamen: r = −0.55, p = 0.034), while cerebellar FAAH density was also negatively associated with assaultive aggression (r = −0.54, p = 0.035). ASPD presents high levels of disruptive behavior with few, if any, efficacious treatment options. Novel therapeutics that increase FAAH brain levels in a region-specific manner could hold promise for attenuating certain symptom clusters of ASPD, although our results require replication.

Trajectories of teacher–child relationships across kindergarten and first grade: The influence of gender and disruptive behavior

The present study examined whether teacher–child closeness and conflict across kindergarten and first grade varied by gender and disruptive behavior at kindergarten entry within a sample of 324 predominantly Black children from low-income, urban households. Three main findings emerged from the analyses. First, contrary to findings from previous work that revealed stability in closeness and conflict across the first few years of elementary school, this study identified significant changes in closeness across the kindergarten and first grade years. Second, girls experienced more closeness with teachers than boys across both kindergarten and first grade, and the rate of change in teacher–child closeness differed by child gender across time. Finally, across both school years, associations between gender and teacher–child conflict varied by level of disruptive behavior at the beginning of kindergarten, such that boys with high levels of disruptive behavior experienced more overall conflict with teachers than girls with high levels of disruptive behavior.

Mental Health and Functional Competence in the Cape Town Adolescent Antiretroviral Cohort.

The impact of HIV and antiretrovirals (ART) on long-term mental health in perinatally infected children has not been well studied in sub-Saharan Africa where HIV is most prevalent. Cape Town, South Africa. We investigated mental health measures, including depression, anxiety, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, motivation, disruptive behavior, and functioning in perinatally infected adolescents (PHIV+) stable on ART within the Cape Town Adolescent Antiretroviral Cohort. Two hundred four adolescents living with HIV (median age 10 years; mean CD4 953) and a sample of 44 uninfected adolescents were enrolled. The Beck Youth Inventories, Children's Motivation Scale, Conner's Parent's Rating Scale, and Child Behavior Checklist were administered. Among PHIV+, we explored independent associations between HIV-related stigma, recent life stressors, sociodemographic, clinical, and caregiver-related variables, and mental health measures. PHIV+ had poorer functional competence, self-concept and motivation, higher levels of disruptive behavior, depression and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms and clinically significant anger and disruptive behavior. Within the PHIV+ group, the loss of both biological parents was associated with higher levels of disruptive behavior. Within the PHIV+, factors associated with mental health symptoms and poorer functioning were mostly sociodemographic factors, HIV-related stigma, and life stressors. Age of initiation of ART was associated with self-concept, and failing first-line ART with internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. PHIV+ are likely to face future physical and psychological health consequences related to the functional competence challenges they face if mental health care is not made a priority in the fight against HIV.

The effects of errorless compliance training on children in home and school settings

Errorless compliance training (ECT) is a procedure used to lessen disruptive behavior using a gradual and noncoercive approach. In this study, parents of three school‐aged children who demonstrated high levels of disruptive behavior in the home and the classroom were trained on the ECT procedure. ECT consisted of training in effective instruction delivery and delivery of requests in a hierarchal manner. ECT sessions took place in the home, with parents delivering requests to participating children. Baseline data were used to arrange requests into grouped levels, ranging from Level 1 (requests of which individual is typically compliant) to Level 4 (requests in which individual is typically noncompliant). Using the ECT procedure, request levels were faded over time in a gradual fashion to ensure the highest probability of compliance. Effects of ECT were hypothesized to generalize from the home to the school setting. Implementation of ECT resulted in high levels of compliance in both the home and school settings across all participants. Implications and limitations are discussed.

Comparing Self-Regulation-Associated Event Related Potentials in Preschool Children with and without High Levels of Disruptive Behavior.

Deficient self-regulation plays a key role in the etiology of early onset disruptive behavior disorders and signals risk for chronic psychopathology. However, to date, there has been no research comparing preschool children with and without high levels of disruptive behavior using Event Related Potentials (ERPs) associated with specific self-regulation sub-processes. We examined 15 preschool children with high levels of disruptive behavior (35% female) and 20 peers with low disruptive behavior (50% female) who completed a Go/No-go task that provided emotionally valenced feedback. We tested whether 4 ERP components: the Error Related Negativity, the Error Positivity, the Feedback Related Negativity, and the No-go N2, differed in preschool children with and without high levels of disruptive behavior. Preschoolers with high levels of disruptive behavior showed less differentiation between the Error Positivity and corresponding waveforms following correct responses at posterior sites. Preschoolers with high and low disruptive behavior also showed differences in Go/No-go N2 waveform amplitudes across electrodes. These findings suggest that preschool children with high levels of disruptive behavior may show abnormal brain activity during certain self-regulation sub-processes, informing potential advances in conceptualizing and treating early disruptive behavior.

Marital Conflict Trajectories and Associations With Children's Disruptive Behavior

AbstractWe seek to identify heterogeneous trajectories of marital conflict during the early childhood period, identify predictors associated with these trajectories, and examine associations between trajectory group membership and children's disruptive behavior. Participants were 469 families examined 4 times when the children were 2 to 54 months of age. Maternal reports of marital conflict, adverse childhood experiences, depressive symptoms, and sociodemographic characteristics were collected, and averaged maternal and paternal reports of child disruptive problems were used. Using growth mixture modeling, 3 trajectories of marital conflict were identified: high increasing (21.8%), high decreasing (7%), and low stable (71.2%). Maternal adverse childhood experiences predicted increased risk of belonging in the high‐increasing group, whereas depressive symptoms predicted increased risk of belonging in the high‐decreasing group. Importantly, children of mothers in the high‐increasing group exhibited higher levels of disruptive behavior at 54 months when compared with children of mothers in the high‐decreasing and low‐stable groups.

IMPROVING CLASSROOM ENGAGEMENT AMONG HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WITH DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR: EVALUATION OF THE CLASS PASS INTERVENTION

Off‐task and disruptive classroom behaviors have a negative impact on the learning environment and present a unique challenge for teachers to address. The aim of this study was to evaluate the Class Pass Intervention (CPI) as a behavior management strategy for secondary students with disruptive classroom behavior. The CPI consists of providing students with passes that they can either (1) use to appropriately request a break to engage in a preferred activity for a preset amount of time or (2) keep and later exchange for a preferred item or activity. Using an ABAB withdrawal design with replication through a concurrent multiple baseline across participants design, the CPI was shown to increase academic engagement, which is incompatible with disruptive behavior, in 4 students who engaged in high levels of disruptive behavior throughout the baseline condition. Results also demonstrated partial support for the durability of intervention effects over time and indicated that both teachers and students perceived the intervention to be socially feasible. Implications of the results and directions for future research are discussed.

Risk behaviors in Adolescents with Special Needs: Are Social and Emotional Competences Important?

BackgroundOne of the major threats for adolescent's health and well-being is risk behaviors. The negative effects of risk behaviors are currently well known. They lead to personal, social and economic problems, and are associated with mortality, namely through accidents, violence and crime. Several factors are associated to risk behaviors. Negative life events are one of the factors that could promote the involvment in risk behaviors. Nevertheless there are other factors, like emotional and social competences that are important resources for well-being in adolescence. Adolescents with this kind of competences present a greater capacity for adapt to different situations and deal with adversity.AimsThe aim of the present work is to analyse the role of negative life events and emotional and social competences on risk behaviors, in a population of Portuguese adolescents with special needs.Sample(s)The sample included 494 adolescents with special needs, mean age 14 years old. Pupils attended 77 public schools from all Portugal.MethodsData collection was held within the HBSC (Health Behaviour in School aged Children) survey (Currie et al., 2004; Matos et al., 2006). For the purpose of this specific study, the questionnaire “Risk and resilience in adolescence survey” included questions about personal and social competencies (Resilience Module - CalifórniaHealthy Kids Program Office, 2000), life events (Life Events Checklist, Johnson, 1986) and risk behaviors (substance use and disruptive behavior).Results and ConclusionsResults showed that negative life events and some of personal and social competencies – cooperation and communication, empathy, self-awareness, and self-efficacy are associated to risk behaviors. Adolescents that present higher levels of negative life events or lower levels of these competences present higher levels of disruptive behavior. The promotion of social and emotional competences is an important issue in intervention with adolescents. Implications for prevention field are discussed.

Concurrent attenuated reactivity of alpha-amylase and cortisol is related to disruptive behavior in male adolescents

Attenuated reactivity of salivary alpha-amylase has been proposed as a specific sympathetic marker of disruptive behavior in juveniles and may have additional value to studying other autonomic parameters and hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis activity. Investigating the interrelationships between neurobiological parameters in relation to juvenile disruptive behavior may enhance insight into the complex mechanisms at play.We investigated salivary alpha-amylase, cortisol, heart rate (HR), and heart rate variability (HRV) in response to a standardized public speaking task, and examined interactions between these parameters in relation to disruptive behavior. Participants were 48 delinquent male adolescents (mean age 18.4years, SD 0.9), with and without a disruptive behavior disorder (resp. DP+, DP−) and 16 matched normal controls (NC). A structured psychiatric interview as well as the Youth Self Report and Child Behavior Checklist were administered to assess disruptive behavior.Alpha-amylase and cortisol reactivity, but not HR or HRV, showed significant inverse associations with dimensional measures of disruptive behavior. Moreover, both cortisol and alpha-amylase reactivity were significantly lower in the DP+ group as compared to the NC group. The mentioned relationships remained present when nicotine use was entered as a covariate. Combining alpha-amylase and cortisol in one model explained a larger part of the variance of disruptive behavior than either single parameter. There were no interactions between alpha-amylase and cortisol or HRV in relation to disruptive behavior.Attenuated alpha-amylase responsivity to stress is a correlate of disruptive behavior in late-adolescent males. Although nicotine use explains a considerable part of the variance of disruptive behavior, both alpha-amylase and cortisol are related to disruptive behavior, over and above the effect of nicotine use. Combining alpha-amylase and cortisol improved insight into neurobiological mechanisms involved with disruptive behavior; concurrent low reactivity of both parameters was related to higher levels of disruptive behavior.

Joint Trajectories of Symptoms of Disruptive Behavior Problems and Depressive Symptoms During Early Adolescence and Adjustment Problems During Emerging Adulthood

The joint, longitudinal trajectories of symptoms of disruptive behavior problems and of depression were examined in a community sample drawn from neighborhoods with elevated rates of delinquency. Growth mixture modeling was applied to a 6year transition period from childhood to adolescence, age 10 to 16years, to identify latent classes of trajectories for each symptom type. Several classes emerged for the two types of symptoms, namely a group of youth with high levels of disruptive behavior, a group with increasing levels, and a group with low levels, as well as a group with increasing levels of depression, a group with high levels, a group with decreasing levels, and a group with low levels. Within each symptom type, membership in either the high or in the increasing classes was related to a variety of problematic outcomes during emerging adulthood. The co-occurrence of the disruptive behavior and depression classes was then evaluated using parallel process analysis. Youth exhibiting high depressive symptoms were at increased risk for disruptive behavior problems, and youth with increasing disruptive behavior problems were at risk for depressive symptoms. However, only a very small number of youth had both a high depression trajectory and a high disruptive behavior trajectory. Implications of the findings for the design of prevention and treatment programs are discussed.

Assessing the Odds: Disproportional Discipline Practices and Implications for Educational Stakeholders

One frequently held assumption found within the school discipline literature suggests that students of color- particularly African American, male, low-income populations- are at an increased risk of receiving exclusionary discipline sanctions. Aside from race, gender, and socioeconomic status; however, less is known about other factors that increase the likelihood of a student being excluded from classroom instruction as a result of disciplinary action. These other factors are equally important in understanding disproportional trends found in school discipline. Subsequently, the purpose of this article is to systematically explore other explanations relative to the odds of a student being suspended or expelled from school. Based on the findings from this study, recommendations to various educational stakeholders were offered. Keywords: juvenile delinquency, children at risk, race, ethnicity, class The past three decades of scientific and behavioral research on school discipline (see Children's Defense Fund, 1975; Penning & Rose, 2007; McCarthy & Hoge, 1987; Skiba, Michael, Nardo, & Peterson, 2002) has chronicled the disproportionate representation of school discipline among students of color; a phenomenon conventionally labeled the discipline gap (Gregory, Skiba, & Noguera, 2010). Several researchers, over the years, have consistently found disproportional trends in school discipline practices, as evidenced by the pattern of overrepresentation of African American, Hispanic, and Native American students for exclusionary discipline consequences (i.e., out-of-school suspension and/or expulsions; Brown, Losen, & Wald, 2002; Gregory, Skiba, & Noguera, 2010; Skiba & Knesting, 2001; Skiba et al., 2002). However, African American students are most interesting, seeing how they are targeted for disciplinary action in the greatest numbers; yet, they are generally no more likely to display higher levels of disruptive behavior than that exhibited by their counterparts (Children's Defense Fund, 1975; Taylor & Foster, 1986; McCadden, 1998; Skiba et al., 2002). Evidence of the discipline gap was first documented by the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) in 1975. Within this report, two major findings emerged. First, during the 1972-1973 academic school year, the use of suspensions in public schools accounted, nationally, for the removal of more than one million students from their respective school district (CDF, 1975). Second, using a national sample of over 2000 school districts from the United States Office of Civil Rights' national dataset; CDF (1975) found that one in every eight African American students, compared to one in every 16 Caucasian students were suspended, at least once during the 19721973 school year. These findings, during that time, provided a national platform, whereby racial discrimination in the use of school suspensions could be further explored. Since the publication of the CDF (1975) report, education researchers are somewhat reticent of the possibility of racial bias existing in the distribution of school suspensions. McCarthy and Hoge (1987) were among those who contested the influence of race in determining school punishment. They found that students' past history of official punishment, teacher perceptions of student demeanor, and previous academic performance were strong predictors of suspensions. Furthermore, when controlling for these three variables, McCarthy and Hoge asserted that race combined with other demographic characteristics such as socioeconomic status (SES) and gender, had no effect on school suspensions and expulsions. Despite these findings, the interest in the relationship between race and school suspensions continues to increase. In 2000, the Opportunities Suspended report, developed by the Harvard Civil Rights Project (Harvard CRP, 2000) was published. At the time, it was the first comprehensive national report to scrutinize the disproportional impact of zero tolerance policies (i. …

Heavy Metal in Children’s Tooth Enamel: Related to Autism and Disruptive Behaviors?

To examine possible links between neurotoxicant exposure and neuropsychological disorders and child behavior, relative concentrations of lead, mercury, and manganese were examined in prenatal and postnatal enamel regions of deciduous teeth from children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs), high levels of disruptive behavior (HDB), and typically developing (TD) children. Using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, we found no significant differences in levels of these neurotoxicants for children with ASDs compared with TD children, but there was marginal significance indicating that children with ASDs have lower manganese levels. No significant differences emerged between children with HDB and TD children. The current findings challenge the notion that perinatal heavy metal exposure is a major contributor to the development of ASDs and HDB.

Randomized Trial of Anger Control Training for Adolescents With Tourette's Syndrome and Disruptive Behavior

ObjectiveTo evaluate the efficacy of a 10-session individually administered anger control training (ACT) for adolescents with Tourette's syndrome (TS) and disruptive behavior. MethodTwenty-six subjects (24 boys and 2 girls; mean age 12.7 years, SD 0.88) with TS and high levels of disruptive behavior were randomly assigned to ACT or treatment-as-usual (TAU). The parent-rated Disruptive Behavior Rating Scale and the Clinical Global Impression—Improvement Scale rated by the independent evaluator were used as primary outcome measures. ResultsAll randomized subjects completed end-point evaluation, and all subjects in the ACT group completed 3-month follow-up evaluation. The Disruptive Behavior Rating Scale score decreased by 52% in the ACT group compared with a decrease of 11% in the TAU control group (p < .001). On the Clinical Global Impression—Improvement Scale, the independent evaluator rated 9 (69%) of 13 subjects in the ACT condition as much improved or very much improved compared with 2 (15%) of 13 in the TAU condition (p < .01). This reduction of disruptive behavior in the ACT group was well maintained at 3-month follow-up. ConclusionsAnger control training seems to reduce disruptive behavior in adolescents with TS. Larger trials are needed to confirm these results.

Developmental trajectories of disruptive behavior problems in preschool children of adolescent mothers.

Using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), we analyzed individual developmental trajectories of disruptive behavior problems between ages 3.5 to 6.0 years for 183 children of adolescent mothers. We examined how the level of problem behavior (intercept) and the rate of change over time (slope) are influenced by child's sex, mother's depression/anxiety symptoms, and mother's use of negative control for regulating child behavior. On average, disruptive behavior decreased from age 3.5 to 6.0. Child sex and maternal depression/anxiety related to the level of behavior problems but not to the rate of change. Boys and children of more depressed/anxious mothers exhibited higher levels of disruptive behavior. Maternal negative control was associated with both level of disruptive behavior and rate of change, and negative control mediated the effects of maternal depression/anxiety. Greater negative control corresponded to higher levels of behavior problems and no reduction in their display over time. Child race moderated effects of negative control.