Oppositional Defiant Disorders is a common childhood disorder in which the affected child’s relationship with social norms and rules and regulations related to conduct are messed up. This disorder is a catalyst to conduct disorder and is accompanied by aggression and hostility of the child towards others. Almost all children diagnosed with conduct disorder are affected by ODD at an earlier stage; whereas, only 25 percent of children with ODD go on to develop conduct disorder within a 3 year period.
The age of onset of oppositional defiant disorders is 6 years and it involves offenses that may or may not be against the law. The term Juvenile delinquency is often used to refer to minor who indulge in crimes committed against the law. It is however, important to differentiate between the less serious pranks carried out by normal children and adolescents and the constant antisocial activities in which children with conduct disorder indulge such as destruction of public or private property, harming animals and injuring others in which the rights of other individuals are seriously violated. Children with OPD exhibit a recurrent pattern of negativity, defiance and disobedience towards figures of authority such as parents and teachers for at least six months. They appear to be
Causes of Oppositional Defiant Disorder:
Psychological Factors: Children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder often show apprehensive attachment to t+heir parents and live in downbeat environments that may involve paucity, large family size and being placed in foster care. In addition, their parents often use harsh child rearing practices, which may actually encourage violent behavior.
Environmental factors: These involve rejection of the child by peers, anger and alienation of the child by parents and teachers and confused relationship of the child with the primary custodian. Other factors may include patents with an unstable marriage, inability of the parents to provide affection, direction or love to the child and family conflict leading to separation or divorce.
Treatment for Oppositional defiant disorder:
Treatment for ODD revolves around rectifying the child’s aggressive behavior and finding means to alter dysfunctional family patterns. Family therapy and behavioral techniques play a significant role in the treatment of these disorders. They involve modifying the child’s environment in order to bring about the behavioral changes, which in itself is a challenging task.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy: This focuses on all-around techniques that appear to offer more effective treatment. Common targets of this are to improve social skills, increase self control, inculcate the practice of self critical thinking, and increase the social awareness and interpersonal problem solving skills in the child.
