Socio-medical study of enuresis among delinquent boys.

Persistent enuresis, like apprehended juvenile crime, is common among poorly-housed and illeducated families, and uncommon among intact families of the well-to-do. (For the social distribution of enuresis see Harnack, 1953; Bloomfield and Douglas, 1956; Hallgren, 1956; Miller, Court, Walton, and Knox, 1960. For the social distribution of delinquency see Burt, 1947, 1952; Mannheim, 1948; Ferguson, 1952; Clinard, 1962.) The ecology of enuresis and of juvenile crime thus shows similarities, and some studies have suggested that enuresis is a frequent attribute of young delinquents (Healey and Bronner, 1936; Hirsch, 1937; Michaels and Goodman, 1939). One could hope to find, in young offenders sent to approved schools, a prevalence of enuresis high enough to enable the relationship between enuresis and delinquency to be studied. Approved schools provide a population ofchildren who have responded to their situations by repetitive criminal acts. The object of the present study was to discriminate, within the general background of factors associated with this "voluntary" response, with what special factors the repetitive involuntary response of bedwetting was associated. Two hypotheses were given special consideration. First, the observations of workers such as Burlingham and Freud (1944), as well as our own, led us to pay special attention to relations between child and mother. In a family study we found that persistent bedwetting seemed to be connected with disturbance in a child's relations with its mother (Stein, Susser, and Wilson, 1965). Secondly, we thought it might be possible to distinguish qualities of temperament and behaviour characteristic of boys who were enuretic. Several studies provide evidence of a connexion between enuresis and nervous symptoms such as tics, nail-biting, and tantrums (Michaels and Goodman, 1939; Ekblad, 1948; Harnack, 1953; Hallgren, 1956).