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October 28, 2004
Troubled Kids
Interview
with James Garbarino, Ph.D., author of the book, Parents
Under Siege
Mike
Carruthers:
Here's a parenting statistic that you might find surprising.
James
Garbarino, Ph.D.:
A
recent national survey report said about one in five parents say they have a kid
at home who's so difficult it makes it hard to lead a normal life. James
Garbarino, Professor at Cornell University and author of the book, Parents
Under Siege. And
a lot of these parents suffer in silence because they feel they'll be blamed if
they even talk about this. Because people assume if kids are doing bad things
it's because there are bad parents behind it. Dr.
Garbarino says part of the problem is that kids are influenced by outside factors
much more than in previous generations. The
research shows that the effect of TV violence on kid's aggressive behavior is
about as strong as the effects of smoking on lung cancer. Which means that parents
have to contend with the fact that the more their kids watch television the more
they're likely to be aggressive at home. If
a child continues to exhibit troubled behavior he or she may have trouble for
the rest of their life. Kids
who are aggressive by age ten tend to be highly aggressive teenagers. Yet ten
year old aggressive kids are much more easy to re-direct, kids who are sad are
on their way to becoming depressed teenagers. Kids who are still exhibiting temper
tantrums by age ten when they were followed for the rest of their lives were twice
as likely to get divorced even to be rated by their own children as being irritable
and difficult to live with. For
transcripts visit our website, somethingyoushouldknow.net
I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know. | 
