Common Variables

Abstract

Some lives show remarkable consistency. The unruly, obstreperous child, whose parents have a hard time managing, may develop into the hard-core juvenile delinquent that even specialized schools cannot handle, and later may become the adult criminal who, eventually incarcerated, spends the better part of a prison career sequestered in punitive segregation for chronic disciplinary problems. Sometimes consistency can be found at a more general level, as when different problem behaviors show transitions and apparent substitutions. The difficult child, incapable of making friends at school, may turn to drugs at an early age, move into drug dealing and theft, and then land in a psychiatric hospital. Other lives show dramatic changes, sometimes for the better and sometimes not. The rebellious adolescent may find a girlfriend and settle down into a more conventional life-style, while the otherwise well-adjusted adult may take up heavy drinking after a divorce, an addiction that results in the loss of a job and enrollment in Alcoholics Anonymous.