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Data are presented from 3 studies of children and adolescents to evaluate the predictive validity of childhood oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD) as defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) and the International Classification of Diseases. Version 10 (ICD-10; World Health Organization, 1992). The present analyses strongly support the predictive validity of these diagnoses by showing that they predict both future psychopathology and enduring functional impairment. Furthermore, the present findings generally support the hierarchical developmental hypothesis in DSM IV that some children with ODD progress to childhood-onset CD, and some youth with CD progress to antisocial personality disorder (APD). Nonetheless, they reveal that CD does not always co-occur with ODD, particularly during adolescence. Importantly, the present findings suggest that ICD-10 diagnostic criteria for ODD, which treat CD symptoms as ODD symptoms when diagnostic criteria for CD are not met, identify more functionally impaired children than the more restrictive DSM--IV definition of ODD. Filling this 'hole' in the DSM--IV criteria for ODD should be a priority for the DSM--V. In addition, the present findings suggest that although the psychopathic trait of interpersonal callousness in childhood independently predicts future APD, these findings do not confirm the hypothesis that callousness distinguishes a subset of children with CD with an elevated risk for APD. Keywords: oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, antisocial personality disorder, interpersonal callousness DOI: 10.1037/a0019708

Although the study of relational aggression is gaining attention in the literature, little is known about the underlying causes of this behavior and the relative validity of various informants. These issues were addressed in a sample of 1,981 6- to 18-year-old twin pairs (36% female, 34% male, 30% opposite-sex). Relational aggression was assessed via maternal and self-report using a structured interview. Univariate models estimated genetic and environmental influences by informant and examined evidence for gender differences. A psychometric model combined data from both informants to estimate etiologic influences that were both common to the informants and informant specific. In both sexes, the latent variable reflecting the mother's and child's shared perception of the child's relational aggression was substantially influenced by both additive genetic (63%) and shared environmental (37%) influences, although this latent variable accounted for much greater variance in the maternal report (66%) than it did in the youth report (9%). In addition, informant-specific additive genetic and shared environmental influences were found only for the youth report, with all remaining variance in the mother's report attributed to nonshared environmental influences. Results are discussed in the context of measuring relational aggression and the importance of multiple informants. Keywords: relational aggression, behavior genetics, psychometric model, externalizing behavior, twin studies Journal of Abnormal Psychology 2009, Vol. 118, No. 4, 722-733 [c] 2009 American Psychological Association 0021-843X/09/$12.00 10.1037/a0016949

It is necessary to determine if causal influences on developing antisocial behavior change with age to guide both research and theory on its origins. The extent to which the same genetic factors influence antisocial behavior across 4-17 years of age was estimated using 2,482 sibling pairs of varying genetic relatedness. Assessments of antisocial behavior by mothers (4-9 years), mothers and youth (10-13 years), and youth (14-17 years) reflected the changing validity of informants across development. Genetic influences on antisocial behavior at 14-17 years were entirely shared with those on antisocial behavior at 10-13 years according to both informants. Genetic influences on antisocial behavior at 14-17 years were distinct from those at 4-9 years, however. These age differences in genetic influences cannot be fully distinguished from informant differences across age, but the present findings indicate that youth reported to be persistently antisocial during childhood and adolescence are influenced by one set of genetic factors influencing parent-report conduct problems in childhood and a second set of genetic influences on youth-reported delinquency that come into play around the time of the pubertal transition. Keywords: antisocial behavior, genetics, environmental influences, developmental change Journal of Abnormal Psychology 2009, Vol. 118, No. 4, 711-721 [c] 2009 American Psychological Association 0021-843X/09/$12.00 DOI:10.1037/a0016761

Sex differences in the causes of self-reported adolescent delinquency were examined in full and half siblings born to a nationally representative sample of women in the United States. Qualitative sex differences in the genes that influence delinquency were not detected. Similarly, the proportions of variance in both aggressive and nonaggressive delinquency attributable to genetic and environmental influences did not differ significantly between girls and boys. Nonetheless, total variance in delinquency was greater among boys, and a scalar sex-differences model suggested that genetic and environmental influences on delinquency have less effect on population variation in delinquency among girls. Similarly, a test of the polygenic multiple threshold model suggested that girls require greater causal liability for the expression of delinquency than boys. Keywords: juvenile delinquency, human sex differences, heritability, polygenic multiple threshold model

The belief that youth of Asian Pacific Islander ethnicity (API) are the model minority is examined by using data from a large nationally representative sample of adolescents attending school. The results suggest that, except for substance use, API American youth do not report fewer delinquent behaviors than white youth and API American youth report high rates of nonaggressive offenses and substance use than do African American youth.

The authors examined the latent structure of depression in a population-based sample of children and adolescents. Youth's self-reports and parents' reports of the youth's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.: DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) major depressive symptoms were assessed via a structured clinical interview. The authors used Meehl's (1995) taxometric procedures to discern whether youth depression is dimensional or categorical. Taxometric analyses that explicitly took into account the skewness of depressive symptoms suggested that depression is a dimensional, not categorical, construct. The dimensional structure of depression was obtained for all of the DSM-IV major depressive symptoms as well as for different domains of depression (emotional distress symptoms and vegetative, involuntary defeat symptoms), youth and parent reports, and different subsamples (i.e.. boys vs. girls and younger vs. older youth).

To begin to resolve conflicts among current competing taxonomies of child and adolescent psychopathology, the authors developed an interview covering the symptoms of anxiety, depression, inattention, and disruptive behavior used in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994), the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10; World Health Organization, 1992), and several implicit taxonomies. This interview will be used in the future to compare the internal and external validity of alternative taxonomies. To provide an informative framework for future hypothesis-testing studies, the authors used principal factor analysis to induce new testable hypotheses regarding the structure of this item pool in a representative sample of 1,358 children and adolescents ranging in age from 4 to 17 years. The resulting hypotheses differed from the DSM-IV, particularly in suggesting that some anxiety symptoms are part of the same syndrome as depression, whereas separation anxiety, fears, and compulsions constitute a separate anxiety dimension.

Six waves of structured diagnostic assessments were conducted of 168 clinic-referred 7- to 12-year-olds, over 7 years. Wave-to-wave changes in the number of conduct disorder (CD) behaviors were paralleled by correlated changes in the numbers of symptoms of oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, and anxiety. In addition, CD in Wave 1 predicted levels of ODD, ADHD, depression, and anxiety in later waves when initial levels of those symptoms were controlled, but only ODD in Wave 1 predicted CD in later waves when initial CD levels were controlled. These findings indicate a striking degree of dynamic comorbidity between CD and other types of psychopathology and provide an initial empirical framework for needed developmental models of comorbidity.