Similar Presentations of Disparate Etiologies: A New Perspective on Oppositional Defiant Disorder

ABSTRACT

Oppositional defiant disorder is an individual diagnosis given commonly to children and adolescents who exhibit a pattern of noncompliant and defiant behaviors. Some children's temperament, behaviors, and interpersonal style merit this diagnosis. Other children, however, exhibit behaviors consistent with this diagnosis within the context of their family system. Certainly, the relationship between children's defiant behaviors and problematic circumstances in the family is best evidenced in the most popular treatments for oppositional defiant disorder, which involve working with parents as much as the children. In fact, some treatments of this disorder focus solely on educating the parent about consistency and immediacy in reinforcing positive behavior and ignoring or using time out for negative behavior. The purpose of this paper is to emphasize a different perspective of oppositional defiant disorder, one in which some children experience oppositional behaviors regardless of the parenting they receive and other children exhibit these same behaviors within an inconsistent family context.

KEYWORDS:

• Oppositional Defiant Disorder
• children
• adolescents
• parenting
• family therapy