Multimethod assessment of covert antisocial behavior in children: Laboratory observations, adult ratings, and child self-report.

Given the high risk for delinquency of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), their display of covert or clandestine antisocial behavior is important developmentally and theoretically. In a laboratory probe of the temptation to (a) steal small amounts of money and desired objects, (b) destroy property, and (c) use an answer key to cheat on a worksheet, counts of these covert behaviors were reliably made. Laboratory property destruction was highly correlated with parallel naturalistic behaviors. Stealing and property destruction (but not cheating) formed a factor that was distinct from overt physical and verbal aggression. These covert indexes clearly distinguished ADHD from comparison samples as well as high- from low-aggressive ADHD subgroups; they showed external validity with maternal reports, global staff ratings, and child self-reports of similar constructs. The authors discuss psychometric and ethical issues in the assessment of covert antisocial behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Covert antisocial behavior in boys with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: External validation and effects of methylphenidate.

Covert antisocial behaviors such as stealing, destroying property, and cheating carry high risk for delinquency. An individual laboratory setting was devised in which youngsters could take desired objects and use answer keys to assist with worksheets. 22 boys with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and 22 comparison boys were observed on 2 occasions, with the ADHD Ss receiving a methylphenidate–placebo crossover. Lab stealing and property destruction were positively correlated with maternal and staff ratings of parallel behaviors. Methylphenidate resulted in significant reductions of these acts, but it also effected an increase in cheating, presumably because of its enhancement of task involvement. The generalizability of the lab findings, actions of stimulants in this domain, and the ethics of experimental investigations of covert antisocial behavior are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Overt and relational aggression in Russian nursery-school-age children: parenting style and marital linkages

Maternal and paternal parenting styles and marital interactions linked to childhood aggressive behavior as described in Western psychological literature were measured in an ethnic Russian sample of 207 families of nursery-school-age children. Results corroborated and extended findings from Western samples. Maternal and paternal coercion, lack of responsiveness, and psychological control (for mothers only) were significantly correlated with children's overt aggression with peers. Less responsiveness (for mothers and fathers) and maternal coercion positively correlated with relational aggression. Some of these associations differed for boys versus girls. Marital conflict was also linked to more overt and relational aggression for boys. When entered into the same statistical model, more marital conflict (for boys only), more maternal coercion, and less paternal responsiveness were found to be the most important contributors to overt and relational aggression in younger Russian children.     

Aggression and psychopathology in childhood firesetters: Parent and child reports.

Compared hospitalized disturbed children between 5 and 13 yrs of age identified as firesetters (n?=?31) and nonfiresetters (n?=?32) on several dimensions of aggressiveness and psychopathology. The Ss and a parent (mother or female guardian) were interviewed separately. The parent completed the Child Behavior Checklist, the Hostility-Guilt Inventory derived from the Buss-Durkee Hostility-Guilt Inventory, and an interview for aggression. The 2 aggression measures were also administered to the Ss. The study permitted separation of the influence of firesetting from a diagnosis of conduct disorder in contributing to the symptoms evinced by the Ss. Results indicate that firesetters engaged in more delinquent and antisocial behaviors than nonfiresetters. Firesetters also evinced social skills deficits and a broad range of aggressive behaviors beyond their primary symptom. These results were obtained even when analyses were restricted to Ss who were diagnosed as conduct disordered. The findings elaborate on the clinical picture of firesetting children and suggest that firesetting may emerge late in a sequence of antisocial symptoms involving more extreme overt and covert acts. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Genetic heterogeneity in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): Gender, psychiatric comorbidity, and maternal ADHD.

The authors examined the siblings of 140 attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and 120 control probands and classified families as antisocial if the proband had conduct disorder or a parent had antisocial personality. Partial support was found for the hypothesis that the ADHD gender effect would be limited to antisocial families. Boys had an increased risk for ADHD compared with girls, but only among siblings from antisocial families. The effect size for predicting ADHD in siblings of probands was greater for maternal compared with paternal ADHD, but only for families exhibiting antisocial disorders. Strong support was found for the hypothesis that, compared with siblings from nonantisocial families, those from antisocial families would have more psychopathology (ADHD, depression, substance use, and conduct disorders). The presence of antisocial disorders signals a distinct subtype of ADHD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuropsychological correlates of childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: explainable by comorbid disruptive behavior or reading problems?

Questions remain as to whether neuropsychological processing deficits associated with child attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are accounted for by co-occurring disorders, especially in clinical samples. The authors examined ADHD and comorbid oppositional defiant, conduct, and reading disorders. Boys with ADHD displayed hypothesized deficits on effortful neuropsychological tasks regardless of categorical or dimensional control of comorbid antisocial behavior problems. The same result held when reading problems were controlled, although boys with ADHD plus reading disorder (n = 16) exhibited specific impairment on linguistic output tasks. Simultaneous control of reading and behavior problems yielded the same result. Overall, results suggest that in a clinical sample, difficulties on effortful neuropsychological tasks that require planning or controlled motor output pertain at least in part to ADHD and are not fully accounted for by comorbid conditions.     

Predicting Future Antisocial Personality Disorder in Males From a Clinical Assessment in Childhood.

It is essential to identify childhood predictors of adult antisocial personality disorder (APD) to target early prevention. It has variously been hypothesized that APD is predicted by childhood conduct disorder (CD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or both disorders. To test these competing hypotheses, the authors used data from a single childhood diagnostic assessment of 163 clinic-referred boys to predict future APD during early adulthood. Childhood Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed., rev.; American Psychiatric Association, 1987) CD, but not ADHD, significantly predicted the boys' subsequent APD. An interaction between socioeconomic status (SES) and CD indicated that CD predicted APD only in lower SES families, however. Among children who met criteria for CD, their number of covert but not overt CD symptoms improved prediction of future APD, controlling for SES. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The developmental interface between nature and nurture: A mutual influence model of child antisocial behavior and parent behaviors.

Using an adoption design to collect data on biological and adoptive parents of children adopted at birth, this study explored a possible mechanism through which heritable characteristics of adopted children evoke adoptive parent responses and lead to reciprocal influences between adoptive parent and adopted child behavior. Participants were 25 male and 20 female adoptees, 12-18 years of age, having either a biological parent with substance abuse/dependency or antisocial personality or a biological parent with no such history. The study found that psychiatric disorders of biological parents were significantly related to children's antisocial/hostile behaviors and that biological parents' psychiatric disorders were associated with adoptive parents' behaviors. This genotype-environment association was largely mediated by adoptees' antisocial/hostile behaviors. Results also suggest that the adoptee's antisocial/hostile behavior and adoptive mother's parenting practices affect each other. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Serious conduct problems in the children of adolescent mothers: Disentangling confounded correlations.

Early motherhood (r?=?.33) with the number of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) symptoms of conduct disorder in a sample of 253 boys (aged 6–13 yrs) who had been referred to outpatient clinics. The following models were compared using path analysis: (1) Teenage motherhood, parental antisocial personality, and socioeconomic status (SES) each contribute uniquely to the prediction of childhood conduct problems; (2) teenage motherhood mediates the association of SES and parental antisocial personality with child conduct problems; and (3) teenage motherhood is spuriously related with child conduct problems because of common associations with SES and parental antisocial personality. Model (3) best fit the data. Similar results were obtained whether maternal age at the birth of the firstborn child or the proband child was used to define maternal age and when teenage motherhood was defined as giving birth at     

Informativeness of child and parent reports on substance use disorders in a sample of ADHD probands, control probands, and their siblings

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate parent-child agreement on psychoactive substance use disorder (PSUD) reporting among children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and to test whether agreement level could be predicted from measures of parent and child psychopathology and substance use severity. METHOD: The authors examined 348 pairs of child and parent assessments in a sample of 108 ADHD and 68 normal control probands and their 172 siblings aged 12 and older. RESULTS: PSUD rates were higher when the child was the reporter than when the parent was. Agreement between parent and child reports was strongest for cigarette smoking, alcohol dependence, and any PSUD. Although parental reports were frequently endorsed by the child's report, the reverse was rarely true. Predictors of parental awareness of the child's PSUD included impaired social functioning, younger age of the child, presence of multiple substance use disorders in the child, and comorbid bipolar disorder. CONCLUSIONS: PSUD rates vary by informant and are higher when the child is the reporter. Because severity of PSUD and multiple substance use were the strongest predictors of parental awareness, more efforts are needed to identify the more covert and milder cases of PSUD that may not reach clinical attention.     

Association of parental psychopathology to the comorbid disorders of boys with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder.

This study examined whether particular forms of parental psychopathology are related to similar forms of comorbid psychopathology in offspring with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Parental disorders were assessed using maternal interviews, and child disorders were assessed using multiple-informant interviews for 111 clinic-referred boys (aged 7–12) with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed., rev.: American Psychiatric Association, 1987) ADHD. Associations between parental and child internalizing disorders and between parental and child externalizing disorders were found, but associations across categories of disorder (i.e., internalizing and externalizing) were not. Similar relationships were observed in 66 clinic-referred boys without ADHD. These findings support specific modes of familial transmission, in contrast to theories that comorbidity simply reflects more severe psychopathology in children with ADHD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Trauma exposure among children with oppositional defiant disorder and attention deficit–hyperactivity disorder.

Consecutive admissions to an outpatient child psychiatry clinic diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or adjustment disorder were assessed for trauma exposure by a structured clinical interview and parent report. Controlling for age, gender, severity of internalizing behavior problems, social competence, family psychopathology, and parent–child relationship quality (assessed by parent report), an ODD diagnosis, with or without comorbid ADHD, was associated with increased likelihood of prior victimization (but not nonvictimization) trauma. ADHD alone was not associated with an increased likelihood of a history of trauma exposure Traumatic victimization contributed uniquely to the prediction of ODD but not ADHD diagnoses. Children in psychiatric treatment who are diagnosed with ODD, but not those diagnosed solely with ADHD, may particularly require evaluation and care for posttraumatic sequelae. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of medication, behavioral, and combined treatments on parents' and children's attributions for the behavior of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Seventy-four mothers and 41 fathers and their 6 to 13 year old sons with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) watched videos of child ADHD symptoms, compliance, and noncompliance. Participants were told either that the child was receiving medication, behavioral treatment, a combination of the two, or was not receiving treatment and were asked to rate the cause of the behavior. Parents attributed less control but greater stability to positive child behaviors when the child was receiving medication. However, for negative behaviors, medication increased attributions of control but diminished stability. With behavior management, compliance was seen as more external and stable and noncompliance as more controllable but less stable. For all treatments, boys reported increased control over ADHD symptoms and noncompliance. The implications of these treatment-related attributions for parenting and children's self-perceptions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Substance-dependent, conduct-disordered adolescent males: severity of diagnosis predicts 2-year outcome

Most delinquent youths have conduct disorder (CD), often with comorbid substance use disorder (SUD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depression. Some youths' conduct problems later abate, while those of others persist into adult antisocial personality disorder. Earlier CD onset and ADHD reportedly predict persisting antisocial problems, but predictors of persisting SUD are poorly understood. Males aged 13-19 years (n = 89), most referred by criminal justice and social service agencies, received residential treatment for comorbid CD and SUD. They had diagnostic assessments for SUD at intake and for CD, ADHD, and depression (as well as drug-use assessments) at intake and 6, 12 and 24 months later. At intake nearly all had DSM-III-R substance dependence (usually on alcohol and marijuana) and CD with considerable violence and criminality. The 2-year follow-ups revealed improvements in criminality, CD, depression and ADHD, but substance use remained largely unchanged. Various aspects of conduct, crime and substance outcomes at 2 years were predicted by intake measures of intensity of substance involvement, and by CD severity and onset age, but not by severity of either ADHD or depression, nor by treatment duration. Earlier CD onset, more severe CD and more drug dependence predicted worse outcomes, supporting the validity of these diagnoses in adolescents.     

Impact of comorbid oppositional or conduct problems on attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether the presence of comorbid oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) or conduct disorder (CD) alters the correlates of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). METHOD: Three groups of children (33 "pure" ADHD, 46 ADHD + ODD, and 12 ADHD + CD) were compared on measures of ADHD, aggression, anxiety, parental psychopathology, self-esteem, school, and social-emotional functioning. RESULTS: Findings indicated that the presence of comorbid oppositional or conduct problems in children with ADHD altered the correlates of ADHD across a number of areas, including greater ADHD symptom severity and social dysfunction. Nevertheless, some correlates were more closely linked with the comorbid condition of ADHD + CD (e.g., higher aggression, anxiety, and maternal pathology, as well as decreased self-esteem), while others appeared more closely linked with ADHD + ODD (e.g., social withdrawal, elevated academic achievement paired with higher perceived scholastic competence). CONCLUSIONS: Findings support the distinctive profiles of the disruptive behavior disorder groups and emphasize the deleterious effects on the quality of life experienced by the comorbid conditions. The need for syndrome-specific interventions is stressed.     

Relational aggression, gender, and peer acceptance: Invariance across culture, stability over time, and concordance among informants.

It has been proposed that overt physical and verbal aggression are more prevalent among boys and that covert aggression in the context of interpersonal relationships is more typical of girls. The purpose of this study was to replicate and extend American research on this topic to Italy. Italian elementary school pupils (n?=?314) and their teachers provided nominations for aggression and prosocial behavior on 2 occasions within a single school year. Both peer and teacher nominations were highly stable, though there was very poor concordance between them. Peer nominations for both overt and relational aggression were linked to peer rejection. Contrary to expectations, boys scored higher than girls in both overt and relational aggression. Nevertheless, on the basis of the gender composition of extreme groups, the authors conclude that the distinction between overt and relational aggression is as useful in facilitating research on aggressiveness among girls in Italy as it is in the United States. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differences in mothers' and fathers' behaviors toward children: A cross-cultural comparison.

Systematic observations of 78 parent–child dyads in Mexican families revealed a number of differences between maternal and paternal behaviors. Some of the patterns observed run counter to the traditionally held views of Mexican parental roles—for example, that fathers are more aloof and authoritarian, whereas mothers are more warm and nurturant. Fathers, in fact, were found to be more playful and companionable with their children than mothers were, and mothers were more nurturant only in terms of providing immediate physical needs. In addition, fathers, but not mothers, differed significantly in their behavior toward girls and boys: on reprimanding-restrictive and instrumental-directive behaviors they were substantially lower toward girls, whereas they directed more attention and cognitive involvement toward boys. The findings, when compared cross-culturally, proved to be similar to findings obtained in observational studies of parents' interactions with infants and young children in this country. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Modeling Growth in Boys' Aggressive Behavior Across Elementary School: Links to Later Criminal Involvement, Conduct Disorder, and Antisocial Personality Disorder.

The present study used general growth mixture modeling to identify pathways of antisocial behavior development within an epidemiological sample of urban, primarily African American boys. Teacher-rated aggression, measured longitudinally from 1st to 7th grade, was used to define growth trajectories. Three high-risk trajectories (chronic high, moderate, and increasing aggression) and one low-risk trajectory (stable low aggression) were found. Boys with chronic high and increasing trajectories were at increased risk for conduct disorder, juvenile and adult arrest, and antisocial personality disorder. Concentration problems were highest among boys with a chronic high trajectory and also differentiated boys with increasing aggression from boys with stable low aggression. Peer rejection was highest among boys with chronic high aggression. Interventions with boys with distinct patterns of aggression are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Child effects on communication between parents of youth with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Numerous studies indicate interparental conflict causes child externalizing behavior. However, far less is known about the inverse relationship. Exploring this gap in the literature has clear implications for parents of children with externalizing disorders (e.g., attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder [ADHD]). Adapting an experimental child behavior manipulation paradigm (Lang, Pelham, Atkeson, & Murphy, 1999; Pelham et al., 1997, 1998), parent couples of 9- to 12-year-old boys and girls with ADHD (n = 51) and without ADHD (n = 39) were randomly assigned to interact with a “disruptive” or “typical” confederate child. According to parent and observer ratings, parents interacting with disruptive confederates communicated less positively and more negatively with each other during and after the interactions than did parents who interacted with typical confederates. Observational coding also indicated that child effects on negative interparental communication were more noticeable among parents of youth with ADHD, particularly those with comorbid oppositional defiant disorder or conduct disorder, compared with parents of youth without ADHD. These findings extend results of prospective studies highlighting child effects on marital quality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parenting and antisocial behavior: A model of the relationship between adolescent self-disclosure, parental closeness, parental control, and adolescent antisocial behavior.

This study used data collected from a sample of 840 Italian adolescents (418 boys; M age = 12.58) and their parents (657 mothers; M age = 43.78) to explore the relations between parenting, adolescent self-disclosure, and antisocial behavior. In the hypothesized model, parenting practices (e.g., parental monitoring and control) have direct effects on parental knowledge and antisocial behavior. Parenting style (e.g., parent–child closeness), on the other hand, is directly related to adolescent self-disclosure, which in turn is positively related to parental knowledge and negatively related to adolescents’ antisocial behavior. A structural equation model, which incorporated data from parents and adolescents, largely supported the hypothesized model. Gender-specific models also found some gender differences among adolescents and parents, as the hypothesized model adequately fit the subsample of mothers but not fathers. Mothers’ closeness to girls predicted their knowledge of their daughters’ behavior; mothers’ control predicted boys’ antisocial behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)