Understanding Desisting and Persisting Forms of Delinquency: The Unique Contributions of Disruptive Behavior Disorders and Interpersonal Callousness

The current study examined whether childhood and adolescent symptoms of conduct disorder (CD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and interpersonal callousness (IC) distinguish boys who will exhibit persisting versus desisting patterns of delinquent behavior from adolescence into early adulthood. The sample consisted of an ethnically diverse group of 503 boys who were repeatedly assessed from ages 6 to 25. In childhood, univariate analyses indicated that CD and IC symptoms were higher among boys whose delinquent behavior persisted from adolescence into adulthood relative to those boys whose delinquency desisted across time and non-delinquents. However, after controlling for the overlap between symptoms of ADHD, ODD, CD and IC in childhood, only CD symptoms differentiated persisters from non-delinquents. In adolescence, univariate analyses indicated that ODD, CD, and IC symptoms were higher in persisters relative to both desisters and non-delinquents, while elevated ADHD symptoms only distinguished persisters from non-delinquents. In multivariate analyses controlling for the co-occurrence ADHD, ODD, CD and IC symptoms in adolescence, associations between CD and IC symptoms and delinquency group membership remained significant such that CD and IC symptoms were higher in persisters relative to both desisters and non-delinquents. Moreover, these significant relations held even after controlling for ADHD, ODD, CD and IC symptoms in childhood. Taken together, this indicates that the boys with elevated levels of CD and IC symptoms are at risk for exhibiting a pattern of delinquent behavior that persists from adolescence into early adulthood