Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T19:28:16.006Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Developmental pathways in disruptive child behavior

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2008

Rolf Loeber ,
Phen Wung ,
Kate Keenan ,
Bruce Giroux ,
Magda Stouthamer-Loeber ,
Welmoet B. Van Kammen  and
Barbara Maugham
Rolf Loeber
Affiliation:
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh
Phen Wung
Affiliation:
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh
Kate Keenan
Affiliation:
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh
Bruce Giroux
Affiliation:
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh
Magda Stouthamer-Loeber
Affiliation:
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh
Welmoet B. Van Kammen
Affiliation:
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh
Barbara Maugham
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Developmental sequences in disruptive behavior from childhood to adolescence are traced retrospectively and prospectively in two community samples of boys. Three developmental pathways are distinguished: (a) an early authority conflict pathway, consisting in sequence of stubborn behavior, defiance, and authority avoidance; (b) a covert pathway, consisting of minor covert behaviors, property damage, and moderate to serious forms of delinquency; and (c) an overt pathway, consisting of aggression, fighting, and violence. The overlap among the three disruptive pathways is examined. Those boys who escalated in the overt pathway were more likely to escalate in the covert pathway than boys escalating in the covert pathway showing an escalation in the overt pathway. Escalation in the authority conflict pathway was not associated with escalation in either the overt or the covert pathways. Boys' rate of self-reported delinquency was highest for those in triple pathways (covert-overt-authority conflict) or in certain dual pathways (covert-overt, covert-authority conflict). However, by age 16 the highest rate of offending was displayed by those in the triple pathways. The rate of violent offenses was also highest for those in the triple pathways and for those in the overt and covert pathways. Results from the rate for court petitions largely supported these findings. Lowest rates of offending were observed for boys in the overt and authority conflict pathways. Implications are discussed for clinical practice and future research.

Type
Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 5 , Issue 1-2 , Winter-Spring 1993 , pp. 103 - 133
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achenbach, T. M. (1993). Taxonomy and comorbidity of conduct problems: Evidence of empirically based approaches. Development and Psychopathology, 5, 51–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Achenbach, T. M., & Edelbrock, C. S. (1983). Manual for the Child Behavior Checklist and Revised Child Behavior Profile. Burlington: University of Ver-mont.Google Scholar
Baumrind, D. (1989). The permanence of change and the impermanence of stability. Human Development, 32, 187–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Belson, W. A. (Ed.). (1975). Juvenile theft: The causal factors. London: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Blumstein, A., Cohen, J., Roth, J. A., & Visher, C. A. (Eds.). (1986). Criminal careers and ‘career criminals’. Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Cicchetti, D. (1990). An historical perspective on the discipline of developmental psychopathology. In Rolf, J., Masten, A., Cicchetti, D., Neuchterlein, K., & Weintraub, S. (Eds.), Risk and protective factors in the development of psychopathology (pp. 2–28). New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costello, A. J., Edelbrock, C. S., Dulcan, M. K., Kalas, R., & Klaric, S. H. (1984). Report on the NIMH Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC). Unpublished manuscript, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinical, Pittsburgh, PA.Google Scholar
Donovan, J. E., Jessor, R., & Costa, F. M. (1988). Syndrome of problem behavior in adolescence: A replication. Journal of Consulting and Clinic Psychology, 56, 762–765.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Elliott, D. S., Huizinga, D., & Ageton, S. S. (1985). Explaining delinquency and drug use. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Farrington, D. P., Loeber, R., Elliott, D. S., Hawkins, J. D., Kandel, D. B., Klein, M. W., McCord, J., Rowe, D. C., & Tremblay, R. E. (1990). Advancing knowledge about the onset of delinquency and crime. In Lahey, B. B. & Kazdin, A. E. (Eds.), Advances in clinical child psychology (Vol. 13, pp. 283–342). New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freud, A. (1965). The concept of developmental lines. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 18, 245–265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, S. M., Loeber, R., & Lahey, B. B. (1991) Stability of mother's recall of the age at onset of their child's attention and hyperactivity problems. Journal of the Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 30, 135–137.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hamburg, B. A., Kraemer, H. C., & Jahnke, W. (1975). Behavioral and attitudinal correlates of substantial drug use. American Journal of Psychiatry, 132, 627–647.Google ScholarPubMed
Huizinga, D., Esbensen, F. A., & Weiher, A. W. (1991). Are there multiple paths to delinquency? The Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, 82, 83–118.Google Scholar
Jessor, R., & Jessor, S. L. (1977). Problem behavior and psychosocial development: A longitudinal study of youth. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Kandel, D. B. (1978). Convergence in prospective longitudinal surveys of drug use in normal populations. In Kandel, D. B. (Ed.), Longitudinal research on drug use (pp. 3–38). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Kandel, D. B. (1980). Developmental stages in adoles-cent drug involvement. In Lettieri, D. J., Sayers, M., & Wallenstein Pearson, H. (Eds.), Theories on drug abuse. Selected contemporary perspectives. NIDA Research Monograph 30.Google Scholar
Kandel, D. B. & Faust, R. (1975). Sequence and stages in patterns of adolescent drug use. Archives in General Psychiatry, 32, 923–932.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kazdin, A. E. (1992). Overt and covert antisocial behavior: Child and family charateristics among psychiatric inpatient children. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 1, 3–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lahey, B. B., Frick, P. J., Loeber, R., Tannenbaum, L., Van Horn, Y., & Christ, M. A. G. (1992). Oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder: A meta-analytic review of factor analyses and cross-validation in a clinic sample. Unpublished manu-script, University of Miami, Miami, FL.Google Scholar
Le Blanc, M., Cote, G., & Loeber, R. (1991). Temporal paths in delinquency: Stability, regression and progression analyzed with panel data from an adolescent and a delinquent male sample. Canadian Journal of Criminology, Jan., 23–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Le Blanc, M., & Frechette, M. (1989). Male criminal activity from childhood to adulthood: Multilevel and developmental perspectives. New York: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loeber, R. (1988). The natural histories of juvenile conduct problems, substance use and delinquency: Evidence for developmental progressions. In Lahey, B. B. & Kazdin, A. E. (Eds.), Advances in clinical child psychology (Vol. 11, pp. 73–124). New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loeber, R. (1991) Questions and advances in the study of developmental pathways. In Cicchetti, D. & Toth, S. (Eds.), Rochester Symposium on Develop-mental Psychopathology: III (pp. 97–115). Rochester, NY: Rochester University Press.Google Scholar
Loeber, R., Green, S. M., & Lahey, B. B. (1990). Mental health professionals' perception of the utility of children, mothers, and teachers as informants on childhood psychopathology. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 19, 136–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loeber, R., Green, S. M., Lahey, B. B., Christ, M. A. G., & Frick, P. J. (1992). Developmental sequences in the age of onset of disruptive child behaviors. Journal of Child and Family Studies 7, 21–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loeber, R., Green, S. M., Lahey, B. B., & Stouthamer-Loeber, M. (1989). Optimal informants on childhood disruptive behaviors. Development and Psychopathology, 1, 317–337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loeber, R., Keenan, K., Giroux, B., Sieck, W., Stouthamer-Loeber, M., & Van Kammen, W. (1992). The differential role of early onset, hyperactivity, and substance use in boys'pathways to serious disruptive behavior. Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA.Google Scholar
Loeber, R., & Le Blanc, M. (1990). Toward a develop-mental criminology. In & (Eds.), Crime and justice, an annual review (Vol. 12, pp. 375–473). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Loeber, R., Russo, M. F., Stouthamer-Loeber, M., & Lahey, B. B. (1992, 10 19–20). Relationship between internalizing symptoms and pathways in disruptive child behavior. Paper presented at the N.I.M.H. Workshop on Affective Processes in Adolescence,Bethesda, MD.Google Scholar
Loeber, R., & Schmaling, K. B. (1985a). Empirical evidence for overt and covert patterns of antisocial conduct problems: A meta-analysis. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 13, 337–352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loeber, R., & Schmaling, K. B. (1985b). The utility of differentiating between mixed and pure forms of antisocial child behavior. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 13, 315–336.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Loeber, R., Stouthamer-Loeber, R., Van Kammen, W. B., & Farrington, D. P. (1989). Development of a new measure of self-reported antisocial behavior in young children: Prevalence and reliability. In Klein, M. W. (Ed.), Self-report methodology in criminological research (pp. 203–225). Boston: Kluwer-Nijhoff.Google Scholar
Loeber, R., Stouthamer-Loeber, M., Van Kammen, W. B., & Farrington, D. P. (1991). Initiation, escalation and desistance in juvenile offending and their correlates. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 82, 36–82.Google Scholar
Maguin, E. (1992). Manual for retrieving juvenile court data files from the Allegheny County Juve-nile Court Files. Unpublished manuscript, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA.Google Scholar
Moffitt, T. E. (1992). Adolescent-limited and life-course-persistent antisocial behavior: A developmental taxonomy. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin, Madison.Google Scholar
Patterson, G. R. (1980). Children who steal. In Hirschi, T. & Gottfredson, M. (Eds.), Understanding crime: Current theory & research (pp. 73–90). London: Sage.Google Scholar
Patterson, G. R. (1982). A social learning approach: Vol. 3. Coercive family process. Eugene, OR: Castalia Publishing.Google Scholar
Patterson, G. R. (1986). Performance models for anti-social boys. American Psychologist, 41, 432–444.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pulkkinen, L., & Tremblay, R. E. (in press) Patterns of boys' social adjustment in two cultures and at different ages: A longitudinal perspective. International Journal of Behavioural Development.Google Scholar
Radke-Yarrow, M., Campbell, J. D., & Burton, R. V. (1970). Reliability of maternal retrospection: A preliminary report. In Danziger, K. (Ed.), Readings in child socialization. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Russo, M., Loeber, R., & Keenan, K. (1992). Oppositional defiant and conduct disorders: Validation of the proposed DSM-IV alternative diagnostiction. Unpublished manuscript, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA.Google Scholar
Tolan, P. H., & Guerra, N. G. (1992). A developmental perspective on adolescent antisocial behavior. Unpublished paper, University of Illinois at Chicago.Google Scholar
Tremblay, R. E. (1992). The prediction of delinquent behavior from childhood behavior: Personality theory revisited. In McCord, J. (Ed.), Facts, frame-works, and forecasts (Vol. 3, pp. 193–230). New Brunswick, NJ: Transactions.Google Scholar
Van Kammen, W. B., Loeber, R., & StoutharnerLoeber, M. (1991) Substance use, antisocial, and delinquent behavior in young boys. Youth and Adolescence, 20, 445–451.Google Scholar