The Complexities of Behavioral Disorders
Various forms of unhealthy behavior are intertwined in a young person in various ways and without a clear boundary they cross into each other. Therefore, they are very difficult to distinguish, and each classification of behavioral disorders is artificial and imperfect. However, it needs to be done to make the variety of these disorders more transparent.
Passive and Active Forms of Behavioral Disorders
As it was said – an unhealthy attitude of a child towards the environment can have a predominantly active or predominantly passive character. But in the same child, both forms of behavioral disorders can be combined; for example, a child can be very withdrawn at school and extremely intrusive and even aggressive at home.
In addition, some passive forms of negative behavior carry an aggressive component, and some active behavioral disorders also hide passive traits. Thus, negligence is most often passive, but it can also be motivated by hidden aggression, eg towards overly ambitious parents; running away from home is usually an expression of a child’s active rebellion against a certain environment, but it is also a defensive reaction to the psychological injuries that that environment inflicts on a young person, etc.
Combinations of Passive and Active Behavioral Disorders
There are, therefore, no “pure” forms of disturbed behavior, no matter how much one child of unhealthy behavior seems active to us and another passive. That is why we are talking about mostly active, ie mostly passive forms of disturbed behavior, but according to whether the component of attack or withdrawal prevails in them.
In the behavior of the so-called. of an exemplary child we come across a certain balance of active and passive attitude towards the environment, e.g., such a child is often both very ambitious and very withdrawn. Therefore, this form of unhealthy behavior is not included in either group of disturbed behavior, but in both.
The Interconnectedness of Passive and Active Behavioral Disorders
Predominantly passive forms of unhealthy behavior in children and adolescents can again be classified into two main groups, according to which symptoms most often occur together.
In the first group there is a so-called. a timid child who is characterized by timidity and withdrawal, and at the same time is stiff, silent, distrustful, unhappy and even depressed. The second group of symptoms of passive behavioral disorders is encountered in a careless child, who is also dependent, lazy, listless, messy and uninterested.
Of course, these two types of children with behavioral disorders are often combined, because in life, even in psychopathology, there are no “pure” types.
