Children are more likely to show behavioral disorders as they get older. In the prepubertal period, at the ages of 11 and 12 years, we observe a tendency to decrease the frequency of mental disorders; from the age of 13 it grows again. We see this phenomenon in both sexes; the frequency curves of behavioral disorders in boys and girls generally run parallel.
There are several possibilities to interpret the increase in the frequency of mental disorders with the age of the child:
- The child encounters the more life burdens the older he is, so he has more and more opportunities to show his insufficient mental maturity
- The older the child, the longer he is affected by wrong upbringing procedures, so the more negative personality traits are fixed in him.
- The older the child, the more his conflict with the environment intensifies, so the behavior of his negative attitude towards the environment becomes more and more pronounced.
It is most likely that all of these factors act at the same time.
