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Chapter 9
Conduct Problems
Description of Conduct Problems
Conduct problem(s) and antisocial behaviour(s) are terms used to describe a wide range of age-
inappropriate actions and attitudes of a child that violate family expectations, societal norms, and
the personal or property rights of others
These children experience problems in controlling their emotions and behaviour. They also
display a variety of disruptive and rule-violating behaviours, ranging from annoying but
relatively minor behaviours to more serious forms of antisocial behaviours
Children with severe conduct problems frequently grow up in extremely unfortunate family and
neighbourhood circumstances, where they experience physical abuse, neglect, poverty, or
exposure to criminal activity
o Thus, in many cases, aggressive behaviours are an adaptation to home and
neighbourhood violence and neglect. This does not excuse the behaviours, but does
provide an NB backdrop for understanding and preventing these problems
Youths with severe conduct problems are often seriously disturbed and need help. At the same
time, their deeds frequently evoke outrage, concern for innocent victims, and a desire to severely
punish, or confine them
o This creates an inconsistency between society’s concern for children who experience early
adversity or abuse and the tendency to criminalise and demonise youths who display
violent behaviours
Context, Costs, and Perspectives
Context
Most young people break the rules from time to time – few adolescents refrain from antisocial
behaviour entirely, and those who do describe themselves as excessively conventional, anxious, ad
socially inhibited
o Although most young people break the rules, adolescents with conduct problems engage
in more, and more severe, antisocial and risk-taking behaviour compared to peers
Antisocial behaviours appear and then decline during normal development
o This decline partially reflects parent’s lack of awareness of the trouble their teens may be
getting into. However, teens also report that their antisocial behaviours decrease with age
Several NB features of antisocial behaviours in the context of normal development:
o Antisocial behaviours vary in severity
o Some antisocial behaviours decrease with age, whereas others increase with age and
opportunity
SLK 310 Exam 2019 Abnormal Child Psychology Chapter 9 H Visser
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o More common in boys during childhood, but this difference narrows in adolescence
Children who are the most physically aggressive in early childhood maintain their relative
standing over time
o Aggressive acts such as persistent physical fighting are highly stable, with an average
correlation of about 0.70 for measures of these behaviours taken at different times
Social and Economic Costs
The staggering costs borne by the educational, health, criminal justice, social service, and MH
systems that deal with youths with conduct problems make it one of the most costly MH problems
in North America
An extreme pattern of antisocial behaviour occurs only in about 5% of children
o These children cause considerable and disproportionate amounts of harm, accounting for
over half of all crime in the US, and 30-50% of clinic referrals
More teens in the US die from firearm injuries than from all diseases combined, and are twice as
likely as adults to be victims of violence, most often committed by other teens
Perspectives
Legal
Legally, conduct problems are defined as delinquent or criminal acts
The broad term juvenile delinquency describes children who have broken a law
Delinquent acts include property crimes and violent crimes
Legal definitions depend on laws that change over time or differ across location
Delinquency involves apprehension and court contact and excludes the antisocial behaviours of
very young children that usually occur at home or school
It is NB to distinguish official records of delinquency from self-reported delinquency
Given the large number of youths involved in criminal activities, we must ask whether these
behaviours are understandable adaptations to a hostile environment
o Unfortunately, no clear boundaries exist between delinquent acts that are a reaction to
environmental conditions and those that result from factors within the child
Some criminal behaviours are arbitrarily included in current MH definitions (arson, truancy)
o Similarly, some symptoms of MH problems do not necessarily violate laws
A legal definition of delinquency may result from one or two isolated acts, whereas a MH
definition usually requires the child to display a variety and persistent pattern of antisocial
behaviours
o Thus, only a subgroup of youths who meet a legal definition will also meet the definition
for a mental disorder
Psychological
From a psych perspective, conduct problems fall along a continuous dimension of externalising
behaviour
o Children at the upper extreme of this dimension, usually one or more standard deviations
above the mean, are considered to have conduct problems
o The externalising dimension itself consists of two related but independent sub-
dimensions, labelled ‘rule-breaking behaviour’, and ‘aggressive behaviour’
Rule-breaking behaviours include running away, setting fires, stealing, etc.
Aggressive behaviours include fighting, destructiveness, and disobedience
o Two additional independent dimensions of antisocial behaviour are:
SLK 310 Exam 2019 Abnormal Child Psychology Chapter 9 H Visser
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Overt-covert dimension
Ranges from overt visible acts such as fighting to covert hidden acts such
as lying or stealing
Children who display overt antisocial behaviour tend to be negative,
irritable, and resentful in their reactions to hostile situations and to
experience higher levels of family conflict
Those who display covert antisocial behaviour are less social, more
anxious, and more suspicious of others and come from homes with little
family support
Most children display both behaviours
o They are frequent in conflict with authority, show the most
severe family dysfunction, and have the poorest long-term
outcomes
Destructive-nondestructive dimension
Ranges from acts such as cruelty to animals or physical assault to non-
destructive behaviours such as arguing or irritability
Crossing the two dimensions results in four categories of conduct problems:
(A) Covert-destructive, or property violations
o Cruel to animals, steals, vandalism, fire setting, lies
(B) Overt-destructive, or aggression
o Assault, spiteful, cruel, blames others, fights, bullies
(C) Covert-nondestructive, or status violations
o Runaway, swears, breaks rules, truancy, substance use
(D) Overt-nondestructive, or oppositional behaviour
o Annoys, temper, defies, argues, angry, stubborn, touchy
Psychiatric
From a psychiatric perspective, conduct problems are defined as distinct mental disorders based
on DSM-V symptoms
DSM-V contains the general category of Disruptive, Impulse-Control, and Conduct Disorders
o All disorders in this category involve problems in the self-control of emotions and
behaviours, including two that refer to persistent patterns of antisocial behaviour in youth
– ODD and CD
This general category also includes intermittent explosive disorder, pyromania, and
kleptomania
o ODD and CD are collectively known as disruptive behaviour disorders
Public Health
This perspective blends the legal, psychological, and psychiatric perspectives with public health
concepts of prevention and intervention
The goal is to reduce the number of injuries and deaths, personal suffering, and economic costs
associated with youth violence and other antisocial behaviour
DSM-5: Defining Features
Both ODD and CD have been found to predict future psychopathology and enduring impairment
in life functioning
SLK 310 Exam 2019 Abnormal Child Psychology Chapter 9 H Visser
