4-YEAR LONGITUDINAL-STUDY OF CONDUCT DISORDER IN BOYS - PATTERNS AND PREDICTORS OF PERSISTENCE

A prospective study of conduct disorder (CD) was conducted using 4 ann ual structured diagnostic interviews of 171 clinic-referred boys, thei r parents, and their teachers. Only about half of the 65 boys who met criteria for CD in Year 1 met criteria again during the next year, but 88% met criteria for CD again at least once during the next 3 years. For most boys with CD, the number of symptoms fluctuated above and bel ow the diagnostic threshold from year to year but remained relatively high. Lower socioeconomic status, parental antisocial personality diso rder (APD), and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder were signific ant correlates of CD in Year 1, but the interaction of parental APD an d the boy's verbal intelligence predicted the persistence of CD sympto ms over time (i.e., only boys without a parent with APD and with above -average verbal intelligence clearly improved).