Stemming the Tide of Teen Violence April fears the dawning of
her 11-year-old daughter's teen years more than most parents.
The Colorado mom has worked to curb her child's violent temper
since the girl was just three years old. "She is better than she
used to be," says April, who remembers when her daughter
regularly threw plates of food, punched relatives' pets, and
shouted curse words in violent temper tantrums. "But she still
has outbreaks. It has been an active, ongoing process for her to
master her anger." In the not-so-distant future, April worries
that social and academic pressures will trigger more serious
emotional outbursts. The roots of violent and aggressive
behavior can often be traced back many years. Many children with
these kind of traits have a condition known as conduct disorder,
which can begin in early childhood or during adolescence and is
associated in some children with disorders, such as attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder, depression, oppositional defiant
disorder, and bipolar di