Fighting a losing battle

There are times when I silently scream. Just how long will it be before the penny drops in this country. Today the Herald reports on the amount of violence in decile 1 schools, about teachers being demoralised and physically hurt by out of control pupils. This is nothing new but if you believe the anecdotal evidence the situation is deteriorating.

Now I am surprised the media has not cottoned on to a report/plan published at the MSD website a couple of weeks back. I have been meaning to write about it but haven't had time.

It is the Inter-Agency Plan for Conduct Disorder/Severe Anti-social Behaviour 2007-12

Here are some excerpts;

Conduct problems are the single most important predictor of later chronic antisocial behaviour problems including poor mental health, academic underachievement, early school leaving, teenage parenthood, delinquency, unemployment and substance abuse. The pathway for many affected young people typically leads on to youth offending, family violence and, ultimately,
through to serious adult crime. It is estimated that up to 5% of primary and intermediate school-age children have conduct disorder/severe antisocial behaviour.

The prevalence of conduct disorder/severe antisocial behaviour appears to increase during adolescence. It is estimated as many as 1% of 0–17 year-olds receive a specialist behavioural service each year. It is difficult to assess the effectiveness of these services because very little data is collected across agencies on the impact of behavioural interventions on problem behaviours in the short and longer terms.

The long-term costs associated with severe antisocial behaviour are significant. A New Zealand study estimated that the lifetime cost to society of a chronic adolescent antisocial male is $3 million. The prevalence of conduct disorder/severe antisocial behaviour is much higher in children from lower socio-economic groups. In one New Zealand study, the percentage of antisocial children enrolled in Decile 1 and 2 schools was six times greater than the percentage to be found in Decile 9 and 10 schools. New Zealand research suggests that Maori and Pacific males are more likely to have behavioural difficulties than non-Maori, though to a large extent this is likely to be a function of economic disadvantage.

There is considerable debate about the relative roles of factors such as genetic influences, social learning, parenting practice and social conditions as determinants of conduct disorder/severe antisocial behaviour. Most of the research concerned with addressing conduct disorder/severe antisocial behaviour focuses on the risk factors associated with its development, rather than seeking single causative relationships, and there is considerable agreement on the nature of those factors. Among them are:

• parental antisocial behaviour
• parental substance abuse
• parental mental illness
• limited or lax parental supervision
• harsh and coercive discipline and abuse
• neurological deficits
• genetic factors
• child temperament type
• lower verbal IQ
• low socioeconomic status
• younger maternal age (at first birth)
• maternal smoking during pregnancy
• antisocial peer influences.

Nevertheless, children show considerable resilience. In the Christchurch Health and Development Study, for example, 13% of children raised in the highest 5% of high-risk family situations reached adolescence with no obvious disorders of behaviour, learning or psyche. There has been less research attention to these “resilience factors” but those identified include:

• a secure attachment relationship with a parent, and in particular firm and responsive parenting
• a secure attachment relationship with a significant adult outside the immediate family
• higher intelligence


Only 13 percent?? Good grief. That's what we are pinning our hopes and strategy on? Continuing to encourage high-risk families to have kids because they can turn out OK?

Look. The vast majority of these children are the product of the welfare system. All we do is carry on trying to devise more and more plans to reform them when we should be reforming the system. Governments are fighting a losing battle because they will not identify the single biggest problem. I give up.

(Just for a couple of hours while I go out and enjoy the school holidays with my children.)