Prevention of behavior disorders in childhood

Abstract

Behavior disorders in childhood include forms of behavior that exceed the frames of generally accepted standards of behavior for certain environment or certain age, but which refer to disrespect of social norms and endangering of the rights of other people. These are such forms of behavior that have various genesis and forms of manifestation ranging from resistance and opposing behavior, through violation of established rules and aggressiveness, to committing of criminal offences. It is a generally accepted opinion that behavior disorders starting in early childhood have worse prognosis in that there is a greater risk for development of serious disorders at an older age. This is why the prevention of behavior disorders that appear in early childhood is very important for the prevention of origin and development of delinquency. A precondition for successful planning and implementation of preventive activities is to know prevalence and forms of manifestation of behavior disorders within the population of interest. The paper presents the results of research carried out in Belgrade elementary schools, at the sample consisting of 1161 pupils of II, III and IV grade of elementary school. Behavior disorders have been identified at 18% of examinees in the following forms: school fights (13.6%), inadequate behavior in class (13.2%), associating with delinquent children of the same age (8.1%), inadequate behavior towards a teacher (5.3%), abuse of psychoactive substances (1.7%), school thefts (0.8%), deliberate absence from school (0.7%), begging and vagrancy (0.3%) and escape from home (0.2%). The research has revealed significant differences in the form of more frequent presence of behavior disorders in boys and in girls. No statistically significant differences in manifestation of behavior disorders related to the age have been discovered. The stated results suggest that within the examined group there is a target group for application of preventive programs of indicated level. School personnel would require expert assistance in their work with pupils whom have been identified to have persistent, serious and multiple behavior disorders. Due to these reasons, the application of strategy of identification of the problem and further reference is justified, which includes precise and timely detection of pupils with behavior disorders and their referring to the treatment at specialized institutions in the community. In addition to the interventions implemented by other institutions, the school should work on education and informing of pupils about behavior disorders and the possibilities of their prevention, to organize alternative non-teaching activities and offer expert assistance to parents.

Savremena saznanja o poremećajima ponašanja u detinjstvu, posebno o njihovoj prediktivnosti za budući razvoj delinkventnog ponašanja i drugih ozbiljnijih poremećaja, potvrđuju značaj preventivnog delovanja u ovoj oblasti. Prvi deo rada je posvećen određivanju pojma i osnovnih karakteristika poremećaja ponašanja u detinjstvu. U drugom delu su prikazani rezultati istraživanja prevalencije i oblika ispoljavanja poremećaja ponašanja učenika osnovnih škola na teritoriji Beograda. Polazeći od navedenih rezultata, u trećem delu rada autori sugerišu primenu preventivnih programa indikovanog nivoa sa strategijom identifikacije i upućivanja uz prezentaciju programa koji su uspešno primenjeni u drugim zemljama.