It can be noticed in the image that the kid is threatening and bullying other children in the playground.
Conduct Disorder is a psychological disorder, diagnosed in childhood or adolescence.
Conduct Disorder is defined as a repetitive, pervasive and persistent pattern of behaviour in which the basic right of others or according to society norms are repeatedly violated. The tendency to defy, break rules, become physically aggressive and committing crimes increases in this type of disorder.
FACTS
An estimated 6% of the children in India suffer from Conduct Disorder.
SYMPTOMS
- Often bullies, threatens or intimidates others
- Often initiates physical fights
- Has used a weapon that can cause serious physical harm to others (example bat, brick, broken bottle, knife or gun)
- Has been physically cruel to people
- Has been physically cruel to animals
- Has stolen while confronting a victim ( mugging, purse snatching, extortion)
- Has had forced sexual activity
- Deliberately engaged in setting fire with the intention of causing serious damage
- Has deliberately destroyed others property
- Has broken into someone else’s house, building or car
- Often lies to obtain goods or favours or to avoid obligations
- Has stolen items of nontrivial value without confronting a victim ( example: shoplifting)
- Often stays out at night despite parental prohibitions, starting before the age of 13 years
- Has run away from home overnight at least twice
- Is often truant from school, beginning before the age of 13 years
CASE STUDIES
Master V, 13 years of age is brought to the clinic by his father.” Last night he threw a Table Tennis bat at me in anger, because I locked the gates at night and didn’t allow him to go out”, stated his father. He continues, V tends to steal money from us and smokes cigarettes, when he goes out. He becomes aggressive when told not to do something. He has had fights with neighbourhood children and recalls one day while playing cricket, V started an argument with another kid and hit him with his bat. In school teachers define him as a poor student, whose grades are continuously falling, he disobeys the teachers, bullies his classmates and often walks out of the class without taking permission from the teacher. He was recently suspended from the school for 15 days for bursting fire crackers in the school, where a few kids got hurt. V during the course of the personal interview shows an indifferent attitude and is very casual about all the events and says he did that for fun and he didn’t intend to hit his father, he just wanted to scare him but the racquet slipped out of his hand. V has no prior medical history, but he has refused to sit in any counselling sessions in the school, referring to them as a big bore.
