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Extended Insights
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Posted:
Mar 4, 2006
07:24
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POLL RESULTS:
FEBRUARY 2006
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Why Teens Go Awry
By: Lon Woodbury, MA, CEP, IECA
Publisher Woodbury Reports, Inc.
Welcome to a new month and a new poll. For March's poll, the question is, "Who has the greater advantages in life, boys or girls?" To express your opinion on this question, Click here.
In the last poll, we asked about the cause of negative behavior of the teens placed in residential programs. We received 197 responses and I would like to thank everyone who participated. The results indicated 10 percent chose Psychiatric Problems; 54 percent chose Family/ Peer Dynamics; 5 percent chose Learning Differences; 25 percent chose a Need to Grow Up; and 6 percent indicated Other Reasons.
If this poll is any indication of public opinion, it illustrates that a majority of the public directly connects negative behavior exhibited by teens with the dynamics of poor family or negative peer relationships.
I was surprised to see that only 10 percent chose Psychiatric Problems as the cause because psychiatric diagnoses are commonly discussed in the media and pop psychology, which has permeated social conversations. At nearly every turn, it seems some psychiatric diagnosis is the explanation for the youth having a problem, "He is ADD you know." In addition, programs seem to be evaluated largely by their clinical competence. I have seen situations where it is believed a tragedy happened because the program is lacking in clinicians and no other explanation was sought or needed.
Perhaps so few people chose the psychiatric option because of the perception that diagnoses such as ADD and Conduct Disorder are more of a behavioral problem. Maybe the public views only the most severe cases as psychiatric disorders, or maybe there is still some stigma attached to having a mental illness.
There also seems to be a strong indication that the origin of cause is outer directed rather than inner directed, meaning the cause of negative behavior is something that happens to the teen, (making the teen a victim) rather than the problem being the teen. This means that 10 percent would see the teen as a victim of a psychiatric problem that he or she has no control over. Fifty-four percent believe the cause is the child's association with negative friends or the dysfunctional family that the parents created, and another 5 percent see the child as the victim of some learning difference the child was born with. Viewing it this way, 69 percent see the cause as something the child has no control over.
On the other hand, only 25 percent see the problem as inherent with the child's immaturity or need to grow up. This view indicates that the negative behavior results from the child's choices, rather than from something happening to the child.
From the results of this poll, it appears the public has bought into the idea that when bad things happen to a teen, the teen is a victim rather than the cause of his or her own problems.
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