This study examined the extent of, and explored several possible explanations for, the discrepancies found between adolescent and parent reports of conduct problems in adolescent sexual and nonsexual offenders. We found that adolescent sexual offenders scored lower on measures of conduct problems than did nonsexual offenders, whether on the basis…

Studies of brain development suggest that the increase in risk taking observed during adolescence may be due to insufficient prefrontal executive function compared to a more rapidly developing subcortical motivation system. We examined executive function as assessed by working memory ability in a community sample of youth (n = 387, ages 10 to 12…

The present study examined whether a sample of 214 (52.8% male, M age = 15.76, SD = 1.29) institutionalized adolescents could be classified into subgroups based on psychopathic traits. Confirmatory Factor Analyses revealed a relationship between the subscales of the Youth Psychopathic traits Inventory (YPI) and the three latent constructs of the…

Externalising behaviours such as substance misuse (SM) and conduct disorder (CD) symptoms highly co-ocurr in adolescence. While disinhibited personality traits have been consistently linked to externalising behaviours there is evidence that these traits may relate differentially to SM and CD. The current study aimed to assess whether this was the…

Objective: Despite recognition that disruptive behavior disorders often begin early in development, existing assessment tools are largely based on research with school-aged children. Further empirical work is needed to evaluate the utility of these tools in younger children. Methods: The present study investigated the factor structure, internal…

The central goal of this longitudinal study was to develop a laboratory-based index of children's covert cheating behavior that distinguished normative rule violations from those that signal risk for antisocial behavior. Participants (N = 215 children) were drawn from a community population and oversampled for externalizing behavior problems…

We examined the efficacy of divalproex sodium (DVP) for the treatment of PTSD in conduct disorder, utilizing a previous study in which 71 youth were enrolled in a randomized controlled clinical trial. Twelve had PTSD. Subjects (all males, mean age 16, SD 1.0) were randomized into high and low dose conditions. Clinical Global Impression (CGI)…

This study examined the effectiveness of a treatment program comprised of several components based on evidence-based treatments (EBTs) for disruptive behavior problems delivered to youth participating in a school mental health program in an underserved community in the Appalachian region. Participants were 117 children in kindergarten through 6th…

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess heritability of activity, attention, and impulsivity by comparing young monozygotic (MZ) twins with dizygotic (DZ) twins using objective measures. Method: The OPTAx test is an infrared motion analysis to record the movement pattern during a continuous performance test. Seventeen MZ and 12 same…

Boys who exhibit interpersonal callousness (IC), hyperactivity/impulsivity (HI), inattention (IN), and conduct problems (CP) may be at risk for exhibiting persistent delinquent behavior. However, few studies have established the distinctiveness of these constructs or examined their relative contributions to the prediction of delinquent behavior…