In my ongoing attempt to distinguish when a child or adult crosses over the threshold from “normal” to “abnormal” behaviors Nestor Lopez-Duran PhD at Child Psychology Research Blog has another great post titled “Firesetting in childhood and adolescence: early sign of psychopathology?” Here is a part of it:

In an upcoming issue of the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry a team of researchers from the University of Toronto in Canada conducted a large epidemiological examination of firesetting among 3,965 Canadian children and adolescents in grades 7 to 12. The authors examined the correlates of 4 types of fire setters:

1. No history of fire setting
2. Desisters: History of firesetting but none during the past year
3. Low frequency (1-2 during past year)
4. High frequency (3+ times during the past year)

The authors then examined the following variables:

• sex
• age
• school level
• grades
• is family intact?
• welfare involvement?
• difficulty with peers
• daily smoking
• binge drinking
• cannabis use
• other illicit drug use
• delinquent behaviors
• Ritalin use
• high sensation seeking personality
• psychological distress
• suicidal ideation

The Results:

1. 72% of the sample had either never engaged in fire setting (32%) or had engaged sometime during their lives but not during the past year (40.5%)
2. 27% reported engaging in firesetting during the past 12 months.

While controlling for other variables:
3. When compared to those with no history of firesetting, the “desisters” were were more likely to be male, older, smokers, cannabis users, high sensation seekers, and have high levels of psychological distress.
4. When compared to those with no history of firesetting, the high frequency fire setters were more likely to be male, have low parental monitoring, be binge drinkers, cannabis users, illicit drug users, have a history of delinquent behaviors, be sensation seeking, have high levels of psychological distress, and have suicidal ideation. This profile was almost identical to the profile of low frequency firesetters.

As Dr. Duran-Lopez notes:

The killing and torturing of animals for pleasure (excluding traditional hunting) is one of the strongest signs of serious psychopathology. Firesetting is likely a close second, with most adults and adolescents who engage in arson also have a history of childhood firesetting. But until now, most studies have not been able to accurately examine what type of firesetting is predictive of later problems? For example, some children who engage in firesetting do not engage in arson or have serious psychopathology.

Many facilities who treat children and adolescents will not admit them if they have any history or present any signs of being firesetters. I can recall numerous times when a child and adolescent had an incident of firesetting and they were immediately disqualified for treatment at the facility because they posed such a great threat to themselves and others. When we look for research in this area to this day there is in fact little to no information about the causes or levels of ongoing risk for this type of behavior.

Children and adolescents who had just one incident of firesetting, no matter to what degree of intensity from low to very high, are lumped into a broader category of firesetters. There are also children and adolescents who once admitted begin setting fires in the dorms of treatment facilities or outside. The fear is we cannot take the risk that it is an isolated incident because the potential danger is so high. This causes us to not trust and to ultimately not treat this type of behavior. The end result is we do not make the clinical distinction who is in reality suffering from the psychiatric disorder of firesetting and who is acting out of curiosity or making a childhood or adolescent mistake. As with so many other disturbing behaviors there is much we still do not know.