Part of what afflicts treatment approaches to behaviorally disordered children is a very general diagnostic approach to antisocial behavior. Studies that distinguish aggressive from delinquent syndromes are therefore most helpful.
A recent such study of longitudinal analyses revealed important similarities and differences between aggressive and delinquent syndromes in childhood and adolescence (Development and Psychopathology, 9: 43-5 8).
Subjects were initially assessed at ages 4 to 10 years, with the age span of the entire study being 4-18 years. The two types of conduct problems were defined as: overtly aggressive (e.g., attacking others, bullying, cruelty, and fighting); and more covertly delinquent behavior (e.g., lying stealing, swearing, substance abuse, truancy, and vandalism).
The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), designed to obtain standardized parent reports of children's competencies and behavioral/emotional problems, was used. The CBCL includes 118 items that describe specific behavioral/emotional problems plus two open-ended items for reporting additional problems. Parents' CBCL ratings were obtained for 13 birth cohorts of children.
Results showed that scores of both aggressive and delinquent behaviors declined from 4 to 10 years. Marked effects of gender and cohort in aggression were revealed in significantly higher scores for males than females, and higher scores for older than younger subjects. Delinquent syndrome scores were consistently higher for males than females, and they decreased until age 10 to 11 years, at which point they increased until about age 17.
The researchers note that results for the delinquent syndrome mirror the relation observed between age and crime. Results also suggest that the increase in conduct problems often attributed to adolescence may be accounted for more by increases in covert, rule-breaking behavior like that comprising the delinquent syndrome than by increases in overtly aggressive behavior. The results of this study compel us to rethink behaviors we necessarily correlate with future adolescent criminality.
