Kids’ fire-setting
tied to family ills

A UH-Manoa graduate student
finds problems grow from violence

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Childhood fire-setting, animal cruelty and eventually juvenile delinquency are linked to family dysfunction and "harsh parenting," a University of Hawaii-Manoa graduate student has found.

Kimberly Becker, in the clinical psychology department, and her colleagues collected data as part of a degree program at the University of Arizona. They recruited 363 women in 1990 for a 10-year study on the effect of family violence on children's mental health.

The purpose was to look at family risk factors such as domestic violence, alcoholism, animal and sexual abuse in the home and how they relate to child fire-setting, animal cruelty and other childhood diagnoses, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, conduct disorder, depression and juvenile delinquency. Participants were sought who had experience with domestic violence and children between ages 6 and 12, Becker said.

Mothers and children were interviewed and followed at intervals over the decade with interviews repeated in 1996 and 1998. Data was gathered from the juvenile court system regarding adolescent arrests.

The findings, reported in the July issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, showed children in families with domestic violence were more likely to set fires and be cruel to animals.

Children from homes with family violence were 2 1/2 times more likely to set fires during childhood, Becker said.

Kids in homes where the adult male hurt the family pet also were more likely to be cruel to animals than kids in other homes, she said.

The study showed that fire-setting is related to delinquency and violent behavior six to eight years later, she said. "Animal cruelty is not as strongly related, but the trend is toward that as well."

Children who set fires were three times more likely than non-firesetters to be referred to juvenile court and 3.3 times more likely to be arrested for a violent crime, according to the study.

"We found the quantity and frequency of alcohol the father in the home drank was related to fire-setting," Becker said.

About 48 percent of the kids in the study had an arrest record 10 years later, with about 35 percent for violent crimes, she said.

"It's always good to identify behaviors in children that are red flags, that can be related to chronic and serious behavioral difficulties in the future," she said. But the study's results should be interpreted with caution, she said, pointing out kids might exhibit one of the disturbing behaviors and not be delinquent down the line.

Data is still being analyzed to determine how domestic violence relates to things like depression and anxiety and outcomes of children, Becker said.

"The interesting thing to me is, Why aren't all kids depressed and anxious? I'm interested in the resiliency of it all, how children are able to cope with violence."

The Child and Adolescent Stress and Anxiety Program in the UH psychology department assesses and provides mental health treatment for children with behavioral disorders, she said. "We want to capitalize on children's strengths and resiliency."

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