An Examination of the Developmental Pathways Model for Oppositional Defiant Disorder in a Twin Sample

A recent model suggested by Loeber and Burke (2011) attempts to clarify the association between ODD and the development of later internalizing and externalizing disorders. In this model, there are two separate clusters of ODD symptoms, behavioral and affective symptoms. The affective cluster of symptoms consists of ODD symptoms \u22touchy\u22, \u22spiteful/ vindictive\u22, and \u22angry\u22, and is more likely to lead to internalizing disorders. The behavioral cluster of symptoms consists of ODD symptoms \u22arguing\u22, \u22being defiant\u22, and \u22losing one\u27s temper\u22 and is more likely to lead to externalizing disorders. The current genetically informative longitudinal study aimed to further the understanding of ODD by examining the relations between ODD symptoms assessed during early to late adolescence and MDD, GAD, and CD assessed five years later. Exploratory factor analyses suggest evidence of a two-factor model of ODD symptoms consistent with the Loeber and Burke (2011) model; however, there was also evidence of cross loadings. Findings from biometrical genetic analyses suggest a single set of genetic and nonshared environmental influences explaining the covariance among the ODD symptoms, and little evidence of shared environmental influences. The correlations between negative affect and oppositional behavior symptoms in adolescence and later MDD and GAD were significant. In contrast, the correlation between ODD symptoms and later CD was not significant. Although the overall covariance between negative affect/oppositional behavior and MDD/GAD was significant, there was inadequate power to determine whether this covariance was due to genetic, shared environmental, and nonshared environmental influences