Counseling Adolescents With Disruptive Behavior
Four case studies, one choice, and an assessment that is required but not sufficient. What you do with the assessment is what gets graded.
Editorial process
Last reviewed · August 16, 2026
Assess the client, but the assignment is about the approach
The prompt sets up its own difficulty in the first line: adolescents are not children and not yet adults, and treating them as either produces the two failure modes this assignment is watching for. Treat them as children and you talk past them to the parent, lose the alliance and get nothing useful. Treat them as adults and you miss that autonomy is developing rather than established, that the family system is still the main environment, and that behaviour serving a function in that system will not change because a therapist asked. Disruptive behaviour is best read as communication with a function — escape, attention, control, or the assertion of autonomy in a setting where nothing else is available. Naming the function before naming the intervention is what makes an assessment clinically useful rather than descriptive. Say which of the two failure modes you would be most at risk of with this particular client.
Do the assessment properly using the pages you were given, then go past it. Cover presenting behaviour with onset, frequency and setting, since behaviour that occurs only at school points somewhere different from behaviour that occurs everywhere. Screen for what is treatable underneath: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, learning difficulty, trauma, depression presenting as irritability, substance use. Then choose an approach and defend it. Parent management training and functional family therapy have the strongest evidence for younger adolescents; individual cognitive behavioural work suits older adolescents with the reflective capacity for it; multisystemic therapy fits when school, family and legal systems are all involved. Say which you would use and why the case's features point there. Then name what would make you change course, because a plan with no revision condition is a prediction rather than a plan. Name the person you would need on side for the approach to work at all.
Likely learning objectives
Inferred from the brief — check these against your own rubric.
- 01Position adolescent clients developmentally between child and adult approaches.
- 02Read disruptive behaviour as serving a function.
- 03Screen for treatable conditions underlying behavioural presentation.
- 04Select an evidence-based approach matched to age and system involvement.
Read the full question
Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.
Turn the brief into deliverables
- 01Identification of the case study selected.
- 02An assessment following the assigned framework.
- 03A functional analysis of the behaviour.
- 04Screening for underlying conditions.
- 05A chosen therapeutic approach with justification.
- 06A stated condition for changing course.
Case, assessment, then the therapeutic approach you would take
The case and the presenting behaviour
Describe the behaviour with onset, frequency and setting.
Assessment using the assigned framework
Work through the required assessment elements.
What function does the behaviour serve?
Propose the function the behaviour performs in the system.
Screening underneath
Consider ADHD, learning difficulty, trauma, mood and substance use.
The approach and its evidence
Choose a modality and justify it for this age and system.
Engagement and revision
Say how you would build alliance and when you would change plan.
Evidence for treating disruptive behaviour in adolescents
Recommended databases
- PubMed Central
- National Institute of Mental Health
- The assigned Wheeler text
- American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Search sequence
- 1.Read the assigned assessment pages before watching the media.
- 2.Search for evidence-based treatments for disruptive behaviour by age band.
- 3.Look for functional analysis material so the function section is properly grounded.
- 4.Check the alliance literature for adolescents specifically.
Reference shortlist
These are authoritative starting points, not a ready-made bibliography. A qualified reviewer must confirm that each source fits the assignment and supports the claim beside which it is cited.
Nothing here is cleared for citation until you have read it.
- 01
Effectiveness of Structural–Strategic Family Therapy in the Treatment of Adolescents with Mental Health Problems and Their Families
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · 2019
Structural-strategic family therapy evaluated with adolescents and their families.
- 02
Therapist Adherence in Brief Strategic Family Therapy for Adolescent Drug Abusers
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · 2011
Therapist adherence in brief strategic family therapy — what fidelity actually requires.
- 03
HEEADSSS Up: Evaluating the Efficacy of a Blank Proforma in the Use and Documentation of Adolescent Psychosocial Assessment
Journal of Adolescent Health · 2024
A structured adolescent psychosocial assessment framework.
- 04
Integrated Primary Care Programs for Early Detection and Management of Child and Adolescent Mental Health
BMC Primary Care · 2026
Integrated primary care detection and management of adolescent mental health problems.
- 05
Anxiety Disorders
National Institute of Mental Health · 2024
Background for one of the conditions that presents as disruptive behaviour.
Review before submission
Common mistakes
- Describing the behaviour without asking what function it serves.
- Working with the parent as the client and losing the adolescent's alliance.
- Choosing an approach with no evidence base for this age group.
- Assessing without ever committing to a treatment approach.
Submission checklist
- Have you named the case study you selected?
- Is a function proposed for the behaviour?
- Did you screen for treatable underlying conditions?
- Is your approach justified by features of this case?
Use this guide to plan and review your own work. Follow your institution's rules and read our academic-integrity policy.

Written by
Aaron Bishop
MA, Education
assignment interpretation and research-methods coaching across disciplines
Aaron leads the EssayCrackers editorial desk. He works on how assignment briefs are read — what a rubric is actually asking for, and where students most often answer a different question than the one set.

Reviewed by
Dr. Nathan Cole
PhD, Rhetoric & Composition
Argumentation and thesis development
Nathan teaches first-year composition and directs a university writing center. He reviews EssayCrackers guides for argumentative soundness and citation accuracy.