Lessons For Littleton:
What Research Can and Can't Tell Us
By Diana Zuckerman, Ph.D.
The tragedy in Littleton, Colorado has captured the attention of the American public, and has raised many questions about teenagers in America and their families. Even hindsight is not 20/20 in this situation, but there is a great deal of research that has been done that can help us think about what happened and what can be done in the future. For example:
Warning Signs
"There's a great deal of research that enables us to predict teen interpersonal violence," according to Jan Hughes, Ph.D., a professor in educational psychology at Texas A & M who is a nationally-recognized expert on violence issues. She is quick to point out, however, that it is impossible to predict when that aggression will result in mass killings.
Hughes, who has done research and counseling with children and families for 18 years, urges adults to take these warning signs seriously:Alienation. Many teens feel alienated some of the time, but few feel so alienated from school that "they are walking the halls of their schools with little sense of belonging there." These students have no relationships with most classmates, no close relationships with teachers and other adults at school, and little involvement in extra curricular activities.
School Failure. Doing poorly in school is frequently a warning sign. However, a teenager doing well in school (as was the case of the two killers in Littleton) is not a reason to ignore the other warning signs.
Family Problems. Parents who are inconsistent and harsh in their discipline are more likely to have violent children. Parents can be perceived as rejecting if they punish harshly or if they are uninvolved and not communicating well. We don't know what discipline was like in Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold families, but some military fathers can be authoritarian and harsh disciplinarians. When they are away from home, this could result in very inconsistent discipline.
Previous violence. Violent adolescents usually have a long history of violence, hurting others even as young children. In fact, research shows that aggressiveness is very stable over time - even more stable than intelligence! Just as you can often predict whether a young child will be a smart teenager (although not necessarily a good student) you can often predict whether a young child will be a violent teenager (but not whether he will be a murderer).
Inflated but Fragile Sense of Importance. Some violent adolescents have an inflated sense of their own importance, and when others don't treat them as important they feel disrespected and victimized. Since the feelings of importance are not based on real accomplishments, they will repeatedly feel disrespected. They will react with aggression.
Depression. Approximately half of 10-16 year old boys and girls with high levels of aggression are also depressed. This is not true of adults. (Harris was taking anti-depressant medication.)
Pre-occupation with Aggressive Fantasies. Youth who are pre-occupied with aggressive fantasies seek out violence and become numb to it. Violence seems normal, and they have a distorted sense of it: they admire it, and think it's an effective and legitimate way to solve problems. They also have a distorted sense of the world as an unsafe place.
Excessive Exposure to Violent Entertainment. Many children watch violent TV programs and movies without becoming violent. But excessive exposure to violence through the media and video games may affect susceptible individuals, and can certainly contribute to aggressive fantasies and a distorted sense of violence as an effective, acceptable way to solve problems.Who is responsible? What Can Be Done?
Adults should be concerned if a child exhibits a few of these warning signs. The Littleton killers exhibited many of them. According to Stanley Spiegel, a clinical psychologist at the William Alanson White Institute in New York City and an expert on adolescents, there are plenty of opportunities to see these warning signs unless parents are "working hard not to see them." While parents are not always willing or able to help their own children, teachers, counselors, and other youth workers can often intervene to make a difference. The bottom line is to know as much as possible about a child's friends and how the child is spending his or her time. Check out the child's web page. Relationships with other adults can buffer the dangers of peer pressure.
There are characteristics of schools and communities that may also contribute to the likelihood of boys like Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold not getting the help they need to prevent violent behavior:Large Schools. Although there is no conclusive research about the negative impact of large high schools on teen behavior, it is certainly true that at-risk youth can easily fall through the cracks in a large high school. This is especially likely if their grades are not a problem and their behavior is not very disruptive. The principal at Columbine High School made public statements implying that he was unaware of concerns about the two murderers and had never noticed the "trench coat mafia."
Violence is Acceptable. In their government class last fall, the two boys reportedly produced a video depicting themselves as hit men who could be hired to kill jocks who picked on other students. According to students in the class, most of their classmates also produced videos with violence or sex, so their video did not raise particular concerns. In their creative writing class, the two boys also depicted murder and mayhem, according to classmates interviewed by the Washington Post. And on his web site, Eric Harris wrote "I live in Denver and god damnit I would like to kill almost all its residents." This and other threatening material from his web site were provided to the police last year, but the police did nothing about it. Of course, violence is pervasive in much of America. According to Dr. Stanley Spiegel, "There's an awful lot of aggression in this society, and it's hard to tell a fundraiser from a Nazi." He points out that although many people are aggressive, it is often impossible to predict what will set them off.
Boys will be Boys. A related issue is parental permissiveness. Spiegel said parents should let their children know what is acceptable, negotiating with their children on some issues, and making strict guidelines on others. A related problem is that our society expects boys to be aggressive and expects teenagers to wear odd clothes and show their alienation in a variety of ways. Admiring Hitler and giving the Nazi salute while bowling (as Harris and Klebold reported did) sounds unacceptable, but apparently these behaviors were shrugged off. If youth are not told that their behavior is unacceptable, they will think it is acceptable.
After School Jobs. In November 1998, the Institute of Medicine released a report pointing out some of the dangers of teenagers having jobs, especially as it affects school performance and is related to alcohol and drug use. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold worked together delivering pizza, a very common job for teenagers. However, in addition to the problems cited by the Institute of Medicine report, working means that teens are out of the house more. It is more difficult for parents to find out what their kids are up to and who they are hanging out with if the children are working.
Guns. Research clearly indicates that guns are more deadly than other weapons. As with many American youths, Harris and Klebold acquired guns easily.
Prevention Programs for Schools and Communities
Promising Strategies to Reduce Gun Violence is a report published in February 1999 by the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The researchers examined more than 400 programs from across the country, and then reported on the 60 programs that they considered "promising." Eight of the programs provide comprehensive strategies to prevent violence, six are aimed at interrupting sources of illegal guns, 20 are designed to deter illegal gun possession and carrying, 12 attempt to change attitudes towards guns and violence, and three are aimed at preventing gang violence.
The report provides useful guidance for schools and communities that are willing to invest in prevention programs that are designed to prevent the kind of tragedy that occurred in Littleton. Free copies are available at (800) 851-3420 or at www.ojjdp.ncjrs.org.
What Parents and Other Adults Can Do
Raising Children to Resist Violence: What You Can Do is a free pamphlet written by experts at the American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics. The guidelines are intended to help parents work within the family, school, and community.Recommendations include:
The pamphlet also includes warning signs for children at different ages, ranging from toddlers to teenagers. Although there is considerable overlap with the warning signs provided by Dr. Jan Hughes earlier in this column, the APA and AAP warning signs for pre-teens and teenagers focus more on obvious problem behaviors, such as alcohol and drug use and school failure and truancy.
The guidelines are available free at www.apa.org/pubinfo/apa-aap.html or write to APA, Public Interest Directorate, 750 First St, N.E., Washington, DC. For 100 or more copies ($29.95/per 100), contact the American Academy of Pediatrics, PO Box 927, 141 Northwest Point Blvd, Elk Grove, IL 60009.
Is Youth Violence on The Rise?
In his recent book, American Youth Violence, Franklin Zimring claims that youth violence is not increasing. Even after Littleton, researchers agree that school killings are so rare that it is not possible to statistically determine whether they are increasing. The researchers remind us how few children are killed in these episodes compared to many other daily activities, such as riding in cars. We can all feel reassured by the facts - but lives can be saved if adults more carefully scrutinize the aggressive behavior of children that they see every day.
These articles are based on Diana Zuckerman's monthly Research Watch columns that appeared in Youth Today in issues from November 1999 through November 2004, and were reprinted with permission. Youth Today is a publication of the American Youth Work Center, 1200 17th St., NW, Washington, D.C. 20036. (800) 599-2455. E-mail: youthtoday@aol.com.
