"Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails": Boys and Behaviour in the USA.

In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain introduced two of the most iconic boys in American literature. Tom and Huck become heroic figures, despite their penchant for bad behaviour. Indeed, it is their propensity to be impulsive, break rules and defy authority that win them the day. Today, however, Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn have become the posterboys for a psychiatric disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD. I trace how and why attitudes about pathological boys' behaviour reversed during the twentieth century, from a focus on shy, introverted, and physically passive boys to the very opposite - boys like Tom and Huck. I argue that, rather than imposing limits on childhood behaviour, we should be more accepting and encouraging of all types of children.

El niño problema como objeto institucional: la psiquiatría infantil en Cuba, 1926-1945 / The problem child as institutional object: child psychiatry in Cuba, 1926-1945

El nacimiento de la psiquiatría infantil en Cuba en los años 1920 refleja el desarrollo de la psiquiatría como una disciplina con importancia social. La extensión de la pericia psiquiátrica se entrelazó con la figura del "niño problema", quien se concibió como una metáfora para un estado soberano en desarrollo. Pero los reformadores sociales del momento frecuentemente tropezaron con el problema de la corrupción política en sus esfuerzos de rehabilitar a los niños enfermos y delincuentes. Al final, los psiquiatras y activistas que habían concebido al niño problema como un laboratorio poderoso para la regeneración política invertirían la dirección de su lógica causativa: fue el mismo estado que se tendría que rehabilitar para lograr sus metas médicas y sociales (AU)

The emergence of child psychiatry in 1920s Cuba mirrored the ascent of psychiatry as a discipline imbued with broader social relevance. The extension of psychiatric expertise was centrally concerned with the figure of the "problem child", posited as a synecdoche for a maturing sovereign state. As reformers set out to rehabilitate mentally ill and "delinquent" children, however, they frequently found themselves running up against the problem of political corruption as it impacted the institutions in which they sought to intervene. Ultimately, psychiatrists and social crusaders who had identified the problem child as a potent site for political regeneration were forced to reverse the causal direction of their reformist logic: it was the state itself that would have to be rehabilitated in order to achieve their medical and social goals (AU)

School discipline and disruptive classroom behavior: the moderating effects of student perceptions.

This study examines the relationship between school discipline and student classroom behavior. A traditional deterrence framework predicts that more severe discipline will reduce misbehavior. In contrast, normative perspectives suggest that compliance depends upon commitment to rules and authority, including perceptions of fairness and legitimacy. Using school and individual-level data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 and multilevel regression modeling, the author finds support for the normative perspective. Students who perceive school authority as legitimate and teacher­student relations as positive are rated as less disruptive. While perceptions of fairness also predict lower disruptions, the effects are mediated by positive teacher­student relations. Contrary to the deterrence framework, more school rules and higher perceived strictness predicts more, not less, disruptive behavior. In addition, a significant interaction effect suggests that attending schools with more severe punishments may have the unintended consequence of generating defiance among certain youth.

Changes in psychiatric problems and service use among 8-year-old children: a 16-year population-based time-trend study.

OBJECTIVE: To study differences in children's psychiatric symptoms and child mental health service use at three time points: 1989, 1999, and 2005. METHOD: Three cross-sectional representative samples of 8-year-old children were compared from southern Finland. The sampling, procedure, and methods were similar at all three time points. Information was gathered from parents and teachers using Rutter questionnaires and other related determinants of service use and from children using the Children's Depression Inventory. The participation rate at the three time points was 96% in 1989, 86% in 1999, and 84% in 2005. RESULTS: Overall, parent and teacher reports of children's problems did not show a significant increase during the 16-year period. Parent reports of boys' conduct symptoms decreased from 1989 to 1999. However, self-reported depressive symptoms among girls increased from 1989 to 2005. Low parental education level, broken family, and negative life events were associated with depressive symptoms among girls. Although 4% of boys and 1% of girls had used child mental health services in 1989, the respective figures in 2005 were 12% and 4%. The majority of children who were screen positive on either parent or teacher ratings of emotional and behavioral problems using Rutter scales had received some educational support from school in 2005. CONCLUSIONS: Reports of depressive symptoms increased among girls, and this finding merits further studies. Use of services has continuously increased. School services play an important role in providing support and early detection of children who need to be referred to child mental health services.

Behaviorally-based disorders: the historical social construction of youths' most prevalent psychiatric diagnoses.

Psychiatry in the USA controls the definitions of mental health disorders and diagnosis through required practice utilization of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and fiscal reimbursement using it. The present sociohistorical research paper presents and critically examines the Manual's systemic and diagnostic development of today's most prevalent youth mental health diagnoses (conduct and oppositional defiant disorders). Through a social construction theoretical paradigm, this research identified diagnostic classification systems, nosology changes, critical time periods, conducive social and cultural conditions, and key individuals involved in the development of these youth behaviorally-based disorders within two distinct historical time frames: 1880 to 1968 and 1969 to 2000. It also identified patterns of nosology system and diagnostic category changes based upon very limited empiricism, inordinately influenced by a limited number of individuals, and understood through a socially constructed framework.