Spiralling up and spiralling down: Implications of a long-term study of temperament and conduct disorder for social work with children

Bagley, C. and Mallick, K. (2000) Spiralling up and spiralling down: Implications of a long-term study of temperament and conduct disorder for social work with children. Child & Family Social Work, 5 (4), 291-301.

Abstract

A model of social work grounded in the integration of the social sciences is presented. In social work with children this is exemplified by the importance of difficult childhood temperament and the goodness of fit between parenting practices in the evolution of conduct disorders. A professional model in which the social worker is an equal status member of a cooperative team of professionals engaged in treatment and research is stressed. The basis for this model of social work is that of the person-in-environment in which loopbacks from the child’s environment reinforce or diminish the evolution of conduct disorder in the process of spiralling down or spiralling up. This process is illustrated by two extensive case histories. In one the spiralling down process has been checked through intensive social work inputs. Nevertheless, in a longitudinal study it is shown that without such interventions difficult temperament observed at age 3 has significant links to conduct disorders, and movement into care or institutional life at age 17. Severe conduct disorders which lead to permanent school exclusion are likely to be expensive.

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