Are Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Oppositional Defiant Disorder Developmental Precursors to Conduct Disorder?

Abstract

(from the chapter) This chapter reviews what is currently known about the developmental precursors to conduct disorder (CD). Specifically, it summarizes current findings on the potential developmental relations between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) on the one hand, and CD on the other hand. Although ODD appears to be a developmental precursor to CD in both girls and boys, the existing evidence suggests that not all children who meet criteria for CD first exhibit a significant number of ODD behaviors. If childhood ODD is a developmental precursor to CD for some boys but not others, it should be possible eventually to identify the factors that govern the developmental progression from ODD to CD. If the findings reviewed in this chapter are correct in suggesting that ODD behaviors play the role of a developmental precursor to CD, how might this happen? We briefly advance one view in this chapter that is consistent with the existing data: ODD is characterized by frequently occurring behaviors that are defined in broad terms, that is, whereas CD behaviors refer to specific law-violating acts, ODD is defined in terms of broad tendencies to respond angrily. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).