CONDUCT DISORDER IN ADOLESCENT GIRLS--PATHS TO ADULTHOOD

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This application for a Scientist Development Award SDAC) is entitled "Conduct Disorders in Adolescent Girls: Paths To Adulthood." My primary interest is in the behavioral pathways taken by adolescent girls with Conduct Disorder (CD) into early adulthood and beyond. Recent evidence has emerged to suggest that a) in adolescent girls is more common than previously realized, and that the adult outcomes are often characterized by significant social and psychiatric dysfunction, even when not associated with overt criminality. Little is known about the developmental tracks or paths associated with the various outcomes, or what baseline factors may be important in placing a girl at risk for a particular outcome. Even less is known about the stages of adult development in these women. Research Project 1 consists of secondary analyses of an existing data set - - the Pittsburgh Youth Study. The mothers of 1500 boys in the study will be assigned a diagnosis of No CD, Probable CD, or Definite CD, based on information previously collected about antisocial behavior during their adolescence. These women have been followed at yearly intervals from 1987 to the present. Their psychological functioning, quality of social relationships, parenting skills, employment and education histories, criminal behavior, substance use and medical histories will be tracked over this time period. In addition to measuring the outcomes for these women at any one point in time, the data will be used to explore stochastic models to describe the paths taken to various outcomes. Research Project 2 is a controlled, prospective study of 65 girls with CD and 65 girls without CD (N= 130) who will be compared on the basis of psychiatric stability, neuropsychological function, testosterone, androstenedione, and estradiol, dyhydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), its sulfate (DHEA(-S) and sex steroid binding globulin (SSBG) plasma levels, measures of physical and indirect aggression, and functioning in interpersonal relationships. These parameters will be tracked in yearly evaluations for three years, beyond the initial assessment. In combination, these projects span the life cycle from adolescence to early adulthood, providing data to refine hypotheses that will be tested in a large, general population-based longitudinaI study of adolescent girls with CD. The final goal of the SDAC is to prepare an application for funding such a project.