Page 5981 - Week 18 - Thursday, 12 December 1991

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Behavioural disturbance among young people is a complex issue which can have one or more causes and can manifest itself in various types of behaviour, including, and I quote from page 9:

violence against family members, peers and those seen as authority figures;

depression;

inability to maintain friendships;

lack of concentration;

lack of social skills;

petty crime;

emotional disturbance;

truancy;

antisocial behaviour;

alcohol abuse;

drug abuse;

uncontrollable acting out;

defiance of authority;

extreme withdrawal.

Biological, psychological and family and cultural influences can be related to behavioural disturbance. Naturally, family and culture have a major influence on behavioural disturbance. In relation to research, I quote from page 12:

... the quality of care given to children is the most important influence on child development.

A recent study by Shaw and Scott, published this year in the Australian Journal of Psychology, found a relationship between parental disciplinary style and adolescent delinquent behaviour. It concluded that, where parents explained to a child the causes, effects and consequences of his behaviour, this would have a positive effect and the child would develop a sense of personal control over events in his life and his own behaviour; whereas, if parenting was, as the study puts it, punitive and the withdrawal of love was used as a disciplinary technique, this would have a negative effect which would diminish the child's sense of personal control and increase the likelihood of delinquent behaviour.

In many cases such as family breakdown, lone parenthood and poverty, it is not the actual situation that has an adverse effect on the behaviour of children but all the associated stress that goes with it and how those situations are handled by the adults involved. I was quite surprised at the amount of evidence which referred to the lack of effective parenting as a major cause of behavioural disturbance in children and young people.

Maurice Balson's book Becoming Better Parents refers to today's parents as the first generation of parents who are not parenting by tradition. Previously, parenting was carried out in an autocratic social system of "You do as I say, not as I do". With women's liberation, equal rights and

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