The authors examined the degree to which callous-unemotional traits and narcissism predict relational aggression, social aggression, and prosocial skills in a sample of 79 adolescent offenders (13-18 years old; 26% girls; 74% boys) attending a school for youth with behavior disorders in the Mid-Atlantic United States. Narcissism made a significant…

Background: The low expression polymorphism of the MAOA gene in interaction with adverse environments (G × E) is associated with antisocial behaviour disorders. These have their origins in early life, but it is not known whether MAOA G × E occurs in infants. We therefore examined whether MAOA G × E predicts infant anger proneness, a temperamental…

Problem behavior theory posits that tolerance of deviance is an antecedent to antisocial behavior and substance use. In contrast, cognitive dissonance theory implies that acceptability of a behavior may increase after experiencing the behavior. Using structural equation modeling, this investigation tested whether changes in tolerance of deviance…

The goal of this study is twofold: (1) to assess brain anatomical differences between children meeting diagnostic criteria for oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and healthy controls, and (2) to investigate whether morphological brain characteristics associated with ODD differ in boys and girls. Eight-year-old participants (N = 38) were scanned…

Background: Knowledge on the onset and the development of antisocial behavior in females is limited, because most of the research in this domain is based on males. Methods: We critically reviewed 46 empirical studies that examined developmental trajectories of antisocial behavior in females, notably to help determine whether or not an…

Interviews with over 3,000 adolescents were made to evaluate the extent to which DSM-IV criteria characterizes the range of severity of adolescent antisocial behavior within and across sex. The DSM-IV conduct disorder (CD) criteria are a useful indicator of severe adolescent antisocial behavior but some CD criteria display sex bias.

This study examined the prevalence, degree of association and differential effect, by sex and age, of conduct disorder symptoms on psychopathology and functioning. Participants included 680 Spanish children and adolescents between 8 and 17 years and their parents, attending to psychiatric outpatient consultation. Data were obtained through…

Background: Disregard for rules, an important dimension of oppositional defiant and conduct disorders, is frequent during early childhood, but the development of its chronic form has not been studied during this key socialization period. This study aimed to describe the developmental trajectories of disregard for rules during early childhood and…

Research linking psychopathic tendencies to childhood behavior problems is predicated on the assumption that the findings are based on using psychometrically sound measures of psychopathic tendencies. Although evaluated with community samples, the psychometric properties of such measures have not been evaluated with inpatient clinical populations…

This study examined concurrent and longitudinal associations between peer deviance, parenting practices, and conduct and oppositional problems among young girls ages 7 and 8. Participants were 588 African American and European American girls who were part of a population-based study of the development of conduct problems and delinquency among…

The authors examined the relations between self-report measures of parental support, communication, and psychological control and measures of antisocial and delinquent behavior in a sample of 641 Spanish adolescents (M age = 14.35 years, SD = 1.53 years). Findings revealed similarities in the relations between parenting processes and both measures…

We tested a conceptual model involving the inter-relations among affective decision-making (indexed by a gambling task), autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) symptoms in a largely impoverished, inner city sample of first through third grade children (N…

Several rating scales for measuring externalizing problems in children are inconsistent with widely used diagnostic criteria for conduct disorder (CD). The Conduct Disorder Rating Scale (CDRS) was developed to provide valid measures of CD in children age 5 to 12 years. In Study 1, the CDRS was evaluated in a community sample of 1,554 children.…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among students' disruptive and violent behavior and staff's use of proactive and reactive strategies in a secure residential treatment center serving delinquent adolescent males. One hundred hours of observational data were collected, and linear regression models were used to explore the…

The current article is designed to provide school counselors an understanding of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The causes, characteristics, and treatment approaches are presented with examples focusing on school-related issues. The article concludes with a discussion about the role that the school counselor can take in helping the child…