It may be of little surprise to most parents that consistency when raising a child is very important. What may surprise you though is that adolescents with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) respond differently to the frequency and level of consequences than others in their age group. In addition, the level of reward gained from their action usually has a greater allure for them, thus having a definite impact on their choices.
For some adolescents a warning may suffice followed by a server reprimand if the behavior continues. We do this with our children as a learning process to offer them an opportunity to ‘do the correct thing’ although we need to take into consideration that the child’s goal may outweigh the after-effect in their mind. When the goal outweighs the aftermath for the child, we often have to institute negative outcomes for our children. When we are dealing with an adolescents with ODD their goal, which is even more compelling for them, makes that same consequence even less important. This is one of the reasons why we often find ourselves having more struggles with adolescents having ODD.
In an article written by Nestor Lopez-Duran, PhD ~ “Kids with Oppositional Defiant Disorder respond to frequency but not intensity of consequences!” a recent Dutch study was cited as showing results to how ODD adolescents respond to rewards, outcomes, and frequency. The study shows a trend towards ODD personalities and the attraction towards high reward situations outweighing the level of repercussion. The study also demonstrates that more frequent negative outcomes; even if lower in intensity, tend to dissuade ODD personalities better than a high level of infrequent consequence. Or as Dr Lopez-Duran points out in the article concerning adolescents “ … do not respond to increasing the intensity of consequences … they are as responsive to consequences as their non-affected peers if the consequences increase in frequency rather than intensity”
With this in mind it seems even more important to be consistent with ODD adolescents in terms of consequences emphasizing frequency over level of intensity.
Reference:
Lopez-Duran, N. Phd (2010, April 14). Kids with Oppositional Defiant Disorder respond to frequency but not intensity of consequences! Retrieved from http://www.child-psych.org/2010/04/oppositional-defiant-disorder-what-type-o.html
