Conduct problems from age 2 to age 10: Family and cognitive predictors

近年来，被诊断为品行障碍的儿童数量急剧增加；这是令人担忧的，因为品行障碍（特别是如果它开始于生命早期）与许多其他问题有关，包括学业失败、犯罪、抑郁、药物滥用和犯罪。结果，到28岁时，患有早发性品行障碍的儿童花费的公共服务费用是发育正常的同龄人的10倍。家庭因素在行为障碍的发生和维持中起着突出作用：例如，74%的少年犯报告家庭破裂，母亲抑郁或低收入家庭的儿童患行为障碍的可能性是同龄人的2至5倍。这项拟议的研究涉及194名社会多元化的10岁儿童，他们之前在4岁和6岁时参加了详细的认知和观察性评估；其中122名儿童在2岁和3岁时的详细数据（包括母子观察）也可获得。这个10岁的随访包括实验和观察评估，与早期使用的时间点相似。此外，在学校访问期间，全班会议将用于收集同学的提名，这将提供研究儿童的同伴地位（例如，受欢迎/被拒绝等）和同伴声誉（例如，领导能力，侵略性，社交能力和孤立性）的有力指标。最后，建议的家访将包括对母亲的“生活史日历”访谈，重点关注生活事件（如家庭变化或母亲抑郁）的持续时间和共同发生。来自四个时间点的数据将使用通径分析来检查与品行障碍评分的关系。

Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in the number of children diagnosed with conduct disorder; this is worrying because conduct disorder (especially if it begins early in life) is associated with many further problems including school-failure, delinquency, depression, substance-abuse and criminality. As a result, by the age of 28, children with early-onset conduct disorder cost public services 10 times as much as their typically-developing peers. Family factors play a prominent role in the onset and maintenance of conduct disorder: for example, 74% of juvenile offenders report family breakdown, and children with depressed mothers or low-income families are 2- to 5- times as likely as their peers to develop conduct disorder. The proposed study involves a socially diverse sample of 194 10-year-old children who previously took part in detailed cognitive and observational assessments at ages 4 and 6; for 122 of these children, detailed data (including mother-child observations) are also available at age 2 and 3. This age 10 follow up includes experimental and observational assessments that parallel those used at earlier time-points. In addition, during school visits, whole class sessions will be used to gather classmates' nominations that will provide a robust index of the study children's peer status (e.g., popular / rejected etc) and peer reputation (e.g., for leadership, aggression, sociability and isolation). Finally, the proposed home visits will include a 'life history calendar' interview with mothers, focusing on the duration and co-occurrence of life events (such as family change or maternal depression). Data from the four time-points will be examined in relation to conduct disorder scores using path analysis.