Self-reported anti-social behaviour: prevalence and risk factors amongst adolescents with and without intellectual disability.
Antisocial behavior in teens with ID is fueled by poverty and mental-health comorbidities, not by the ID diagnosis itself.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Dickson et al. (2005) asked teenagers to fill out a private checklist about rule-breaking acts.
The sample included teens with and without intellectual disability.
The team then looked at poverty level, mental health, and ID status to see what really drove the misbehavior.
What they found
At first glance, teens with ID reported more antisocial acts.
After the researchers held poverty and mental health constant, the ID effect vanished.
The takeaway: being poor and having mental-health needs, not having ID, predicts antisocial behavior.
How this fits with other research
Fine et al. (2005) captured the same UK city and year and also tied antisocial acts to deprivation, giving a direct replication.
Dudley et al. (2008) seemed to disagree: in severe-ID teens, behavior problems tracked ID severity and autism traits, not social class.
The clash is only surface-deep: O et al. studied mostly non-verbal youth who could not self-report, so poverty effects may be hidden.
Marsack et al. (2017) extended the story by showing that life-skills classes protect mild-ID teens from risky acts, hinting at a place to intervene.
Why it matters
When you see antisocial behavior in a client with ID, zoom out. Screen for anxiety, mood symptoms, and family hardship before assuming the behavior is "part of the disability." Link families to mental-health and social-care services, and document how environmental stressors affect behavior in your FBA. This reframing can keep goals focused on skill-building and support rather than suppression.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Research has suggested increased risk of anti-social behaviour amongst individuals with intellectual disability (ID). METHODS: This study reports the results of a secondary analysis of data relating to self-reported anti-social behaviour, obtained from the 1999 Office for National Statistics (ONS) study of the mental health of children and adolescents in Great Britain. Self-report data from 4174 adolescents was available. Within this group, a sub-group of 98 adolescents with ID was identified. Data covered a variety of sub-types of anti-social behaviour. RESULTS: Comparisons of individuals with ID and those without ID indicated a significantly higher prevalence of a number of types of self-reported anti-social behaviour in the ID sample. Further analyses indicated however, that these between group differences were accounted for by the higher rates of social deprivation and child mental health problems among the ID sample. CONCLUSIONS: Rather than ID per se being associated with increased rates of anti-social behaviour, adolescents with ID may be more likely to experience risk factors (lower socio-economic status and mental health problems) known to be associated with anti-social behaviour. The clinical implications of this and possible future directions for research are discussed.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2005 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2005.00727.x