A residential program I visit has a system for monitoring severe behavior problems, such as aggression toward other persons, running away, or self-injury: Staff fill out a form describing the behavior then a data entry person puts the info into a database.
The graph above is simply a count of incidents involving aggression to persons. The x-axis is the age of the client at the time the incident happened. These raw data are from 2008.
The above graph confirms my clinical impression: with respect to aggression, the teens and young adults are champs (I should mention that about one-third of the clients at this facility are under and two-thirds are over 18 years of age).
If I were a clever doctor, I'd try to take new patients of about 21 years. I could straighten these kids out with friggin' Fred Flintstone's Chewable Multivitamins. People would think I was a genius.
See why we need control groups for clinical research involving kids?
Dr B, HAI!
ReplyDeleteHowz yu doin? :)
Dear me, there are a lot of incidents - Over a thousand for kids aged around 17! Whilst not too much of a surprise - you could come over to where I live and see very much the same results - I do think that's scary nonetheless.
I find it odd that around 45 they start to creep up again very slightly. I can understand the younger kids being like that simply because they are growing up and being teenagery - is that some sort of mid-life crisis thing kicking in or something?
If this graph was a representation of my boss at work - it would just be a level 500 incidents from the age of a about 25 onwards and would not dip in the 30s :)
Can you send those friggin' Fred Flintstone's Chewable Multivitamins and I will chuck them in his coffee when he aint looking?
Hey Phillip! Epeeist showed me pics of an RD.net party and I was glad to see you present drinking tea! *cough*
ReplyDeleteDunno what's up with that blip around the 40s. Could be an outlier, a single individual who is very aggressive pushing up the numbers.
Srsly wuz drinkin Tea at teh start...jus fownd beerz in da pub.. :)
ReplyDeleteThat was a fantastic evening, I really enjoyed it and it was a real pleasure to meet some of the crazy people I type to practically everyday! The chap who posts as Cartomancer had me howling with laughter about all the odd customs in Oxford University - apparently if you really want you can do your exams in a suit of armour complete with broadsword! - We sadly missed Richard cos his bike was chained up to someone else's and he couldn't pop in for a pint before his valedictory dinner!
Speaking of dinner and such, are you up to much for xmas?
I have a nice relaxing time ahead, its going to be nice and quiet, may possibly be interrupted by mad little cousins on boxing day but all in all its going to be a good one!
Back on topic
I notice here where I live the main causes I see for the aggression can be mostly found in kids of the same age who have no other desire in life to want to be anything different. They seem to truly love the destructive lifestyle - trying to tell them that they are only wannabe gangtas and that they could be so much more is futile!
We need more multivitamins dammit!