The Role of Home Chaos in the Treatment Of Disruptive Behavior Disorders.

摘要

Disruptive Behaviors Disorders are a common problem for social service and psychiatric agencies. Children and adolescents with these disorders require a large amount of resources from their families and the community, both financial and emotional. Although their etiology is complicated and is influenced by a multitude of factors, one critical factor examined in the research literature is home chaos. This factor examines the environment that a child develops in and the level of noise, confusion and overall parental inconsistency and lack of structure. Because it is difficult to adequately treat any individual, let alone a child or an adolescent, without understanding their family and home environment, home chaos should be assessed during any psychological intervention aimed to reduce disruptive behavior.;This dissertation seeks to assess how Disruptive Behavior Disorders are most commonly treated, if home chaos is routinely assessed in treatment and how the level of home chaos affects treatment. Clinicians, both doctoral and master's-level were assessed. After analyzing data with Fisher's Exact Test to compare different groups, it was found that clinicians have been assessing home chaos, but most clinicians are not familiar with the CHAOS Scale, an easy-to-use, low cost measure to assess home chaos. Once additional research is completed on the CHAOS Scale and the relationship between home chaos and disruptive behaviors, psychologists will likely have a better understanding regarding the treatments that are most effective in reducing these problematic behaviors.