Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-01-31
YOUR BAD BOY
By H. Addington Bruce

xH7HAT makes bad boys bad is a problem
| wv of immediate and vital interest to many
parents. And unfortunately it is MOI
one for which any stock solution is available
So many causes for badness must be reckoned
with that every individual case needs to be
given special study Sometimes it will be found
that the badness is dependent on Unborn brair
defects. Far more often it is the product Of
causes readily remedable.
| "A boy may be destructive. may play truant
may steal, because he is too Weak-minded to
control instructive impulses or to resist any
temptations that come his way. But similar
lack of control may result from brain manutri-
ton, due perhaps to such factors as poor diet
dental troubles, ear disease, or impedimentS tC
proper breathing.
| Or, again, the badness may be nothing more
| than reaction to faulty parental policy. And
by this ] do not mean merely failure by the
parents to develop moral sense by careful train
ing prudent selection of playmateS, etc.
! mean also failure to appreciate the needs of
growing boys and TO make proper provision for
those needs, and sometimes even failure in
natural affection and sympathy. AS in one case
recently reported from the mental hygiene de-
partment of the Vanderbilt Clinic in New York.
1t is the case of twelve-year-old boy who
was brought to the clinic, partly because he was
nervous and suffered, but also because for two
years he had been addicted to lying, petty steal
ing, and staying out late at night. The nerv-
BUSINESS and suffering, it was found, had set in
only short time before he began to display
signs of badness"
+ At first little progress was made in improv-
ing his condition. Indeed, no progress was
made until inquiry by social worker unearth-
ed the following facts:
"The boy had come to believe that his father
diSliked him. He felt that he was always the
one to be punished in cases of doubtful re-
sponsblity, and he found it impossible to talk
| things over because his father Immediately lost
his temper He expressed this by saying:
He always hollerS on me when Pm around,
and so don't stay in the house when he is
there. =
Gradually the boy developed sense of irri-
tation against his father. He would not ask
him for money because he felt that his father
would refuse to grant any of his requests. In
consequence of this attitude he accepted the
preceptS of the neighborhood gang as the most
satisfactory for his purposes"
Treatment now was directed chiefly to i'm
proving the fathers handling of his son. And
in proportion as more sympathetic relation
WSS established the sons nervousness, Stutter-
ing and tendency to misconduct abated
Surprisingly many chad" boys are made by a
similar parental antagoniSm, diStruSt, and re-
preston. Mental conflicts thereby are engen-
uel Gu III TIC HlFluS Oh nc uStluSLeQ ana unQuly
repreSSed boys. and they miSbehave as a direct
result of the bitterness they feel.
Many other boys, as already remarked, owe
their badness largely to conditions of physical
defect or disease. So that, in fine, badness in
boys should always be accepted as a sign OF
some reimbursement calling for thorough inves-
tigation, and perhaps calling for self-Searching
on the parents part.
copyright, 1922, by The Associated Newspa-
perS.)