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Intervention and treatment (intro)
As a high prevalence mental health problem in children, many interventions and treatments are developed to prevent anti-social behaviours and to help reinforce pro-social behaviours.

Several factors are considered as direct or indirect causes of developing anti-social behaviour in children. Addressing these factors are necessary to develop a reliable and effective intervention or treatment. Children’s perinatal risk, temperament, intelligence, nutrition level, and interaction with parents or caregivers can influence their behaviours. As for parents or caregivers, their personality traits, behaviours, socioeconomic status, social network, and living environment can also affect children’s development of anti-social behaviour.

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Studies have shown that behavioural parent training (BPT) is more effective to preschool or elementary school-aged children, and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has higher effectiveness for adolescents. Moreover, early intervention of anti-social behaviour is relatively more promising. For preschool children, family is the main consideration for the context of intervention and treatment. The interaction between children and parents or caregivers, parenting skills, social support, and socioeconomic status would be the factors. For school-aged children, the school context also need to be considered. The collaboration among parents, teachers, and school psychologists are usually recommended to help children develop the ability of resolving conflicts, managing their anger, developing positive interactions with other students, and learning pro-social behaviours within both home and school settings.

Moreover, the training for parents or caregivers are also important. Their children would be more likely to learn positive social behaviours and reduce inappropriate behaviours if they become good role models and have effective parenting skills.

Prognosis
The prognosis of having anti-social behaviour is not very flavourable due to its high stability throughout children development. Studies have shown that children who are aggressive and have conduct problems are more likely to have anti-social behaviour in adolescence. Early intervention of anti-social behaviour is relatively more effective since the anti-social pattern lasts for a shorter period of time. Moreover, since younger children would have smaller social networks and less social activities, fewer contexts need to be considered for the intervention and treatment. For adolescents, studies have shown that the influence of treatments becomes less effective.

The prognosis seems to not be influenced by the duration of intervention, however, a long-term follow-up is necessary to confirm that the intervention or treatment is effective.

Individual who has anti-social behaviour is more likely to have drugs and alcohol abuse. This could make the prognosis worse since he or she would less likely to be involved in social activities and would become more isolated.