2.1 Disruptive behaviour in adversity

Adversity can refer to a variety of different life experiences and can impact children and young people in different ways.

A photograph of a person sat on the floor with their knees up and their head in their hands.
Figure 5
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A photograph of a person sat on the floor with their knees up and their head in their hands.

Figure 5

Living with a family health crisis is one example of adversity which can be a very lonely, isolating and exceptionally stressful experience for young people. The next activity introduces you to Amy, whose mother developed multiple sclerosis when Amy was 10-years-old. Looking back as a 20-year-old, Amy felt that her unmet need for support had resulted in her behaving in ways that others judged as disruptive behaviour. She found the caring responsibilities, school, and the uncertainty surrounding her mother’s ill health very challenging, and she left school to be home educated at 13 years old.

(Bennett, Cooper and Payler, 2017).

Activity 5: Amy

Timing: Allow about 20 minutes
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Mental health practitioners need to determine how a young person’s social environment may be affecting their health, while being aware of how this might interact with physical and mental developmental changes in adolescence. As you will appreciate, exploring the social environment can be very complex and covers sensitive territory, not least because parents and other caregivers may blame themselves when their child faces challenges to their mental health, and can feel threatened by perceived stigma of other people towards their children.

According to a recent review of the research on the effect of multiple adverse childhood experiences on health (Hughes et al., 2017), adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are most strongly associated with sexual risk-taking, mental ill health, self-harm, problematic alcohol or drug use and violent behaviour later on in the child’s life. These are associations, meaning that although there is a link between ACEs and subsequent poor mental and physical health, this is not to say that ACEs will cause poor health in later life and it is important to note that there is no clear evidence of a cause and effect relationship. Poor health is not an inevitable outcome of ACEs. Supporting resilience in young people who experience adversity can be the key to preventing the harmful consequences of adversity.

Next, you’ll consider what makes young people resilient.

2 Adversity

3 Born or made resilient?