What's wrong with our youth? Is it a psychosocial disorder? Is it the parents?
 

I'm sure it was posted here but when I saw the video of the 16 year old girl getting beat up by 6 or 8 obvious sick individuals, I was outraged. It just seems like it's an occurance that happens so often now. Look at the psycho morons shooting other innocent children in the United States. Then I ask how long until another shooting occurs from some sick child.

A lot of people think it's background or environment. That may be true to an extent, but I no longer know if I actually believe that anymore. I think it could be a number of things. It starts early in life and it doesn't necessarily have to be the parent(s) fault. I think it could be from poor nutrition, birth complications or even low birth weight. All of this can cause poor neural development, which can result in bad behavior.

Sometimes children that are antisocial get ignored, and then they end up becoming some hardcore criminal. Maybe a lot of this can be prevented if people would catch this early on in a child's development.

The problem is GreekChat. I rebuke thee.

As someone who works with children on a daily basis in a family health clinic, I will say that half of the problem is that of the parents. Some children unfortunately do really have psychological imbalances, but a lot of the behaviors i see at the office are mostly a result of the parents...and I'll leave it at that.

Most doctors who treat these children give them medicine that the doctors have invested in, and only those medications.

Parents.

I'm sorry, but the only thing "new" about a kid being beat up by a group of 6-8 bullies is that it gets videotaped and posted on the internet now. Do you seriously mean to tell me that nobody in your highschool ever got beat up by a group of students? It happens, they are kids. They didn't used to be made famous by it, they just used to get suspended.

People always freak out about the awful behavior of the generation or two below them when, in fact, the behavior really isn't a new phenomena. Parents never like their kids music (except me.. I tend to like the same music that my kids do), they always think kids dress in ridiculous fashions (ironically, the 14 y/o is wanting to wear the same stupid 80's fashions that I used to wear), etc.

Should we as an adult society stop this behavior? Will it ever stop--the use of violence to solve problems? I'm sorry, but I have given up on that idea long time ago and have lost hope.

I agree. It's just like any other social ill. Child molestation, incest etc have been happening since the beginning of time and probably at times much worse than now...it was just that no one ever talked about it.

But I do think the growing dependence on meds doesn't help.

Too many kids are getting put on meds for things that are just....CHILDHOOD...and then if they go off them or change the dosage, needless to say it's going to freak a developing brain/nervous system out.

I totally agree AGDee!! My mom made pretty much the exact same comment as you when we talked about all these things today. She just thinks these kids want to be able to go back and see how "cool" they were when they beat up someone.

I believes, its the PARENTS! Seriously, it is getting pretty ridiculous nowadays. I don't know if any of you remember George Lopez's comedy routine about the Mexican mother vs the American mother in a store w/ the crying child. Race/ethnicity aside, this analogy holds true. You have more and more mothers nowadays who think that by taking away a "gold star" will teach their child how to improve their behavior.

Kids aren't afraid of their parents, in fact many parents are afraid of their kids. They want to be the kids best friend and not give the kid any guidelines or rules. Its beyond ridiculous. I mean, I am going to want to be my kid's friend, but not at the expense of my role as mom.

Huge co-sign. I've talked to some parents who have put their children on meds for being hyper or being sad every now and then. I always look at them like "Hmm...that's called LIFE."

I had a great mini-conversation with Rashid (Senusret I) about this just yesterday. If he finds his way over here, he might be willing to give his take on it.

My response: PARENTS

Co-sign.
Co-sign.
Co-sign.

True. Being bullied is nothing new, but being hostpitalized or almost killed over it is. Going around shooting other people like playing some violent video game is also insane. I think specific genes and the social environment interact to produce changes in the brain that influence emotional control and violence in kids. The V-Tech killer was taken off of his meds and look what happened. It's starts early, and if it isn't caught there's a possibility the kid could bacome a lifelong violent criminal. Antisocial behavior is what I think parents should start noticing. I think understanding whether a child is hyperemotional, or unemotional allows psychologist to identify high risk children early and to intervene with treatments before the child gets involved in serious crimes. I think things are different now because 20 years ago it was just general therapy and counselling, then waiting a few months to see if the kid got better. Yes, I do think parents are part of the problem but may not be the whole problem in some cases. In some cases improving parenting can be among the main tools of approaching antisocial behavior.

I beg to differ. Again, it just isn't talked about as much or hyped as much in the media.

If you've ever seen Death of a Cheerleader or River's Edge, those are both true stories (although River's Edge was changed from a guy being killed to a girl so they didn't have to pay off the author). Both of those happened over 20 years ago.

Now there is where you are wrong. You might not have ever seen someone getting beaten up that bad, but happens. It happened a lot when I was younger.