Excessive Temper Tantrums In Children May Spell Future Anti-Social Behaviors

Children are certainly known to have a temper tantrum or two as they transition into adulthood. Yet researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis believe that kids who have trouble growing out of these fits may also be more prone to certain antisocial behaviors.

For the study, children who showed symptoms of high-intensity defiant behavior, destruction of property or overall aggressive tendencies were evaluated by mental health professionals.

"Previously, we did not understand the empirical differences between normal disruptive behaviors in preschoolers - like temper tantrums, for example -- and behaviors that signal problems," said lead researcher Dr. Joan L. Luby, professor of child psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, said in a news release. "If you went to your pediatrician and said, 'My 3-year-old is having tantrums,' the pediatrician wouldn't tell you to see a psychiatrist."

Children who showed high-intensity defiant behaviors with aggressiveness towards people or animals were more likely o have difficulties with peers or certain conduct disorders that disrupted overall communication.

"We characterize a symptom as high-intensity when it's really 'high-pitched' -- so just how severe the anger is," Luby said. "Other factors that would qualify a symptom as high-intensity would hinge on how frequently the behavior occurs and the context in which it occurs. A high-intensity symptom is one that is very acute or severe, occurs over a long duration of time and happens in a number of different contexts."

"Children who had high-intensity symptoms as preschoolers were likely to have conduct disorder," first author Dr. Ji Su Hong, MD, a mental health provider for children treated at Grace Hill Health Centers in St. Louis, said in a statement. "And those symptoms also tended to predict conduct disorder when they reached school age."

More information regarding the findings can be seen via The Journal of Pediatrics.

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