Fire-Setting by Children

Aggression and psychopathology in childhood firesetters: Parent and child reports.

“…The characteristics of firesetters found in the present sample can be compared in some respects to those described in other studies. For example, there is general agreement that firesetters engage in more delinquent (Kuhnley et al, 1982), antisocial, or externalizing behaviors (Heath et al, 1983; Stewart & Culver, 1982; Strachan, 1981), most notably stealing, lying, property destruction, and vandalism. However, these studies have not shown firesetters to be more aggressive than nonfiresetters.…”

“…However, these studies have not shown firesetters to be more aggressive than nonfiresetters. The absence of differences in aggression may reflect the use of only one measure of aggression (Kuhnley et al, 1982; Stewart & Culver, 1982), the failure to examine or report specific scores of aggressive behavior (Heath et al, 1983; Ritvo et al, 1982), or the fact that children in other studies were older and hence may have been more likely to exhibit primarily delinquent behaviors of a covert, nonaggressive nature (Loeber, 1982). Moreover, the use of retrospective record reviews to identify subjects (e.g., Kuhnley et al, 1982) may make isolation of homogeneous groups somewhat difficult.…”

“…Recent controlled studies of psychiatric patients have overcome many of these problems. Kuhnley, Hendren, and Quinlan (1982) compared the hospital records of firesetting and nonfiresetting children admitted to a psychiatric facility. Compared to nonfiresetters, firesetters were more often male and more frequently diagnosed as conduct disorder and attention deficit disorder.…”

“…In light of the different aggressive and acting-out behaviors they may exhibit, firesetting children in clinically referred samples are more likely to receive a diagnosis of conduct disorder than another psychiatric diagnosis (Kuhnley et al, 1982; Stewart & Culver, 1982). However, certain symptoms ascribed to them, such as aggression, may be attributes of conduct disorder rather than of firesetting behavior per se.…”

Closing the Research-Practice Gap: Factors Affecting Adoption and Implementation of a Children's Mental Health Program

“…Because firesetting frequently occurs in the context of disruptive behavior disorders (Kolko, Kazdin, & Meyer, 1985;Kuhnley, Hendren, & Quinlan, 1982;Stewart & Culver, 1982), TAPP-C's treatment protocol was derived from evidence-based techniques previously shown to be effective for children with disruptive behavior problems such as parent management training (e.g., Dumas, 1989;Forehand & Long, 1988;Webster-Stratton, 1996) and child cognitive-behavior therapy (e.g., Baer & Nietzel, 1991;Durlak, Fuhrman, & Lampman, 1991;Kazdin, Esveldt-Dawson, French, & Unis, 1987). In addition, strategies used in the firesetting literature, such as fire-specific psychoeducation for families (Adler et al, 1994;Kolko, 2001), were included.…”