Antisocial and Violent Youth: Highlighting recent research on aggression: CrossCurrents Summer 2004

CrossCurrents

Dr. Jalal Shamsie and his colleagues began publishing their newsletter, Youth Update, some 20 years ago. Mental health practitioners, researchers and policy makers have come to depend on these periodic summaries of the most recent research on special needs youth. Antisocial and Violent Youth: Volume II is the second of the summaries of articles from the newsletter.

David Farrington captures the importance of this volume in his foreword, where he writes, "It is a wonderful resource not only for busy practitioners and policy-makers but also for busy scholars and researchers." All professionals dealing with behaviourally disordered youth experience the frustration of trying to cope with the ever-growing volume of research findings relevant to their field of expertise. The summaries in this volume represent a very effective way to learn about important developments.

The issues of antisocial and self-destructive behaviours in youth are of great concern to parents, practitioners, the general public and youth themselves. Youth often pay a high price for these disorders in terms of emotional turmoil and lost self-esteem, a price often shared with their parents and other family members. The disabilities sometimes have longer-term consequences as well, including early school dropout, unemployment, criminal activity and serious mental disorder. The costs of these effects are often very high for society.

The chapters in the book cover eight aspects of antisocial and violent behaviour, including antisocial behaviour, aggressive behaviour, the disruptive behaviour disorders (conduct disorder and oppositional defiant disorder), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), juvenile offending and substance-related disorders. Other chapters deal with the consequences of abuse and neglect and factors associated with suicide.

The organization of the chapters enhances the utility of the material: "Characteristics and Related Issues," "Causes and Contributing Factors" and "Prevention and Treatment." Various research articles are briefly summarized (generally one to two pages) within each of the categories. The summaries present the methodology of the investigation and the major results and conclusions.

Three types of research articles are included: empirical studies, narrative reviews and meta-analyses. While not exhaustive, the selections of empirical studies demonstrate various research approaches to issues associated with antisocial behaviours and provide a useful sampling of recent findings relevant to the various disorders. These are drawn largely from psychiatric and psychological journals.

The reviews of research are particularly valuable, since they summarize a broader set of conclusions. For example, one of the reviews in the chapter on disruptive behaviour disorders evaluated the research evidence for a variety of psychosocial treatments of conduct disorders and identified two treatments as being well established (parent training and videotape modeling parent behaviour) and 10 treatments as probably efficacious.

While a valuable resource, the format of the volume does have an inherent limitation that suggests some caution in its use. The articles are summarized in isolation from one another, with little integration of results and conclusions across studies. One consequence is that we are not really aware of the complexities and controversies associated with the issues. For example, considerable data exist over the causes of juvenile crime, but this is not reflected in the discussion in the volume. Similarly, there is a very lively debate over the efficacy of alternative treatments of ADHD, but the format of the volume does not allow exploration of this issue.

However, the volume is an important source of information about recent research developments about antisocial behaviours. While financing this type of volume is undoubtedly problematic, one might hope that these volumes might appear on a yearly basis. This would be an invaluable contribution to the area.

This book received a Curriculum Services of Canada Seal of Recommendation in 2004.

Antisocial and Violent Youth: Volume II. Jalal Shamsie, Joanne Lawrence, Carol Hood, eds., Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, 2003, 230 pp., $20.00.

Robert D. Hoge is a psychology professor at Carleton University in Ottawa. He is the author of numerous publications, including Assessing the Youthful Offender: Issues and Techniques (Plenum) and Assessing Adolescents in Educational, Counseling, and Other Settings (Erlbaum).

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