You already learned about how extreme fear, avoidance, and sadness can lead to the diagnosis of an anxiety or mood disorder. At the other end of the behavioral continuum, extreme anger, impulsiveness, and rule-breaking can lead to the diagnosis of a disruptive, impulse-control, or conduct disorder.

Michael is an 8-year-old boy whose mother brought him into a local clinic because his behavior had been getting out of control and his parents and teachers were no longer able to control him. At home, he routinely bullied his siblings, threw glasses and dishes at family members, and even punched and kicked his parents. Outside of the house, Michael had been getting into trouble for stealing from the local store and yelling at his teacher. Nothing his parents tried seemed to change his behavior.

Conduct disorder is a condition in which a child or adolescent engages in a persistent pattern of deviant behavior involving aggression against people or animals, destruction of property, deceitfulness or theft, or serious rule violations. Approximately 9% of people in the United States report a lifetime history of conduct disorder (12% of boys and 7% of girls; Nock et al., 2006). Meeting criteria for conduct disorder requires having any 3 of the 15 symptoms of conduct disorder. This means there are approximately 32,000 different combinations of symptoms that could lead to a diagnosis, which makes those with conduct disorder a pretty diverse group. This diversity makes it difficult to pin down the causes of conduct disorder. Researchers currently are attempting to understand the pathways through which genetic factors interact with environmental stressors (e.g., childhood adversities) to lead to the behaviors that are characteristic of conduct disorder.

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