4 Troubled Teens Blog

According to the Centers for Disease Control, suicide is the third leading cause of death among teenagers. While depression is often the first sign that a teenager may be suicidal, there are other important signs, too.

In a March 31 article on www.connectwithkids.com, Emily Halevy reported that anger and aggression -- as well as a family history of drug and alcohol abuse -- may also put a child at higher risk of suicide:

"So a child that's sad more days than not, that loses interest in their normal activities, that isolates themselves, whose outward behavior changes, who stops being able to function in school and with friends, those are some pretty obvious signs," says Dr. Shannon Croft, a child psychiatrist with the Emory University School of Medicine.

But, experts say, sadness isn't the only sign of suicidal thoughts.

"The majority of the time it only presents with anger and aggression," says adolescent psychiatrist Dr. Saaid Khojasteh with Washington University in St. Louis. "That by itself is a red flag."

Experts say other factors that put teens at risk are family history... and drug and alcohol use.

"If you suspect that your teenager is using alcohol or drugs," says Dr. Croft, "anything that effects somebody's ability to accurately think about themselves and their life and may change their mood- that's a real serious risk factor."

Labels: suicide, aggression, angry

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Postnatal depression, and its effects on infants, gets a lot of attention. But a new study has found that moms mood during pregnancy deserves some attention, too.

A Feb. 5 article on MSNBC.com provided the following details about the study, which was led by Dale F. Hay, a professor of psychology at Cardiff University in Wales:

• The researchers reviewed data on 120 British teens and their parents from inner-city areas. The youth were interviewed at 4, 11 and 16 years of age.
• About one-third of expecting moms were considered depressed during pregnancy, which is higher than the current worldwide estimate of about 18 percent of pregnant women
• Teens born to mothers who were depressed during pregnancy were four times more likely than others to show violent behaviors by age 16.
  
• While 8.5 percent of teens born to chipper expecting moms showed the antisocial behaviors, about 29 percent of those born to depressed moms showed the same.
  

Labels: pregnancy, depression, research, aggression

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In 2008, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that children under two years old should not watch any television. Now a new study finds that television watching may increase aggression in children under three years old.

• Dr. Jennifer Manganello and her colleagues conducted telephone surveys with parents of more than 3,100 children ages 1 to 3 years old.
• Sixty-five percent of the three-year-olds were watching more than two hours of TV per day, and in most homes, the television set was on more than seven hours a day.
• Dr. Manganello, of the University of Albany School of Public Health, found that "for every hour a child watched TV, his or her aggression went up 0.16 on a scale of zero to 30," after she screened out other factors such as living in an unsafe neighborhood or being spanked.

This study appeared in the journal Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Labels: violence, aggression, television

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A study from Princeton University found that 25% of today's teenagers believe you can justify violent behavior some of the time, and 20% say that they did so themselves at least once in the past year. Over 40% said someone had behaved violently toward them in the past year.

The top two reasons for justifying violent behavior were self-defense or to help a friend, although 34% said it was okay to use violence to get revenge.

Dr. David Miller, director of Princeton's Faith and Work Initiative, surveyed 750 people ages 12 to 17 years old, using pollsters from Opinion Research.

"Employers will have their hands full, if a quarter of teens grow up willing to resort to violence and other unethical behavior when it comes to decisions about how to settle differences, protect their interests or get ahead," he said. He noted that over 75% of those who justify violence say they are ethically prepared to enter the workforce.

Labels: violence, aggression

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A 40-year study that began when participants were eight years old has produced some surprising predictors of alcoholism in adults:

" Aggressive, impulsive children - regardless of sex - were more likely to develop adult alcoholism.

" Family conflicts and limited parental education did not predict adult alcoholism.

" Popularity during childhood and adolescence was linked to drinking in amounts greater than average in early adulthood, and problem drinking later in life.

" Children with high IQs and who had attained educational status before age 18 were more likely to drink in above-average amounts as adults.

This fourth finding is the so-called "wine effect," according to Professor Rowell Huesman, who co-authored the study with Professor Eric Dubow of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. "Higher education is associated with greater wine consumption, and that produces the correlation," Huesman said.

The study was published in the May 2008 issue of the journal Addiction

Labels: aggression, alcoholism, adulthood

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A study from the University of Arizona reveals that the decisions teens make about whether to act aggressively in early adolescence influence their future behaviors as young adults. This is the first research that indicates decision-making and behavior are related over time.

Researchers asked 522 middle and high school students and their parents to complete questionnaires about aggressive behaviors such as fighting, lying, bullying, and stealing. When the teens were in grades 8 and then grade 11, they watched videos that presented situations in which they could choose to act aggressively. For example, in one scenario, a teen picks up an abandoned backpack and then someone picks a fight with him. The first teen has to decide whether to fight back.

The results of the study indicate that there is a link between antisocial conduct and judgments about aggressive behaviors in early, middle, and late adolescence, and that the way teens evaluate aggressive behaviors influences their own behaviors and decisions.

This study appears in the journal Child Development.

Labels: aggression, behavioral_issues, studies

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Anti-psychotic drugs do not control aggression in patients who have low IQs, even though such drugs have been used to do just that for over sixty years, according to a new study from Great Britain.

The new study is the first double-bind study that compares these drugs with placebos (sugar pills). Researchers divided 86 patients into two groups  one group took anti-psychotic drugs, and the other took placebos. Those who took the sugar pills actually showed less aggression than the ones who took the prescription drugs.

Psychiatrists and other physicians often prescribe drugs like Haldol and Risperdal to control tantrums and other behaviors in people with IQs below 70.

This study appears in the British science journal, The Lancet.

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Labels: aggression, treatment_programs, drug_use

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Scientists studying brain images of adolescents found that the brains of the most aggressive males have different levels of activity in certain brain centers compared to boys who show only normal aggression.

Scientists from the University of California in San Diego used functional magnetic brain imaging to study adolescent boys who are "reactively aggressively."

"These kids tend to overreact - they punch someone or kick a door, but afterwards, they regret it," said Dr. Guido Frank, one of the lead researchers.

When these boys looked at pictures of threatening faces, there was greater activity in their amygdala, the part of the brain linked to fear, and lower activity in their prefrontal cortexes, the part of the brain involved in reasoning and decision-making. Dr. Frank said that this might mean the boys are more likely to overreact with fear but less likely to use reason to control themselves. These images can only predict risk for violence and aggression, and so far, no one knows how to use such information.

This study was presented at a conference of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego.

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Labels: aggression, brain_chemistry, boys

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Though its gang problem isn't as bad as some other cities, Arlington, Texas has its share of gang-related activity. Just last month a young man was shot and killed in what was believed to be gang-related activity.

"...Arlington police said that what concerns them most is that while the number of gangs in the city has remained fairly constant over the past few years, the violence seems to be escalating."

The Second Annual Gang & Youth Education and Awareness Conference addressed these concerns on Wednesday and Thursday with law enforcement officials from throughout North Texas. A possible sales tax increase will also help Arlington police be proactive in addressing gang-related issues.

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Labels: violence, aggression, gangs

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A professor at Indiana University believes that a particular brand of shyness is linked to school shootings.

Dr. Bernardo Carducci studied the records of eight school shooters, including the boys from Columbine High School in 1999. He found that while almost half of the population considers itself shy, all eight school shooters have a particular variety of it. Dr. Carducci calls it "cynical shyness."

While many shy people try to be social and face rejections, those with "cynical shyness" get angry and want retaliation against those who shun them. Once they start moving away from others, he said, "They start to berate them. In a sense, they become a cult of one."

Cynical shyness, which occurs in fewer than 2% of the population, involves a lack of empathy, low frustration tolerance, angry outbursts, peer rejection, and bad family relationships.

Dr. Carducci presented this study at the American Medical Society convention this month in San Francisco.

Labels: aggression, shyness, rejection

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A 20-year study of 800 people found that those who were violent as teenagers were more likely to engage in domestic violence as young adults.

• Researchers at the University of Washington/Seattle began their study in 1985 when participants were in fifth grade.
• Those who were violent teenagers were more likely to partner with someone who had a similar history, and create a household in which people kicked, bit, and hit one another.

"Most people think youth violence and domestic violence are separate problems, but this study shows they are intertwined," said Professor Todd Herrenkohl, lead author of the study.

Dr. Herrenkohl said his work indicates that society could prevent domestic violence by teaching teenagers to be less aggressive.

This study appears in the journal Violence and Victims.

Labels: violence, aggression

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