title: Understanding desisting and persisting forms of delinquency: the unique contributions of disruptive behavior disorders and interpersonal callousness.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  While associations between conduct disorder (CD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and interpersonal callousness (IC) symptoms and delinquency onset are well established, less is known about whether these characteristics differentiate desisting and persisting delinquency. The current study examined whether childhood and adolescent CD, ODD, ADHD, and IC symptoms uniquely distinguished boys who exhibited persisting versus desisting delinquency from adolescence into adulthood.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were 503 boys (57% African American) repeatedly assessed from ages 7 to 25. Associations between childhood and adolescent CD, ODD, ADHD, and IC symptoms and desisting and persisting delinquency were examined independently and after controlling for their co-occurrence and multiple covariates.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Conduct disorder and IC symptoms in childhood and adolescence were higher among boys whose delinquency persisted into adulthood relative to those boys whose delinquency desisted across time. After controlling for the overlap between symptoms of ADHD, ODD, CD and IC, only adolescent CD and IC symptoms emerged as unique predictors of the differentiation between persisters and desisters. Moreover, adolescent CD and IC symptoms continued to contribute unique variance even after childhood levels of these characteristics were accounted for.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Boys with elevated levels of CD and IC symptoms in childhood and adolescence are at risk for exhibiting a pattern of delinquency that persists from adolescence into adulthood. Intervention efforts designed to prevent chronic delinquency should target youth with co-occurring CD and IC symptoms in childhood and adolescence.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, 207 North Craig Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. alb202@pitt.edu
authors.forename: Amy L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Byrd
authors.forename: Rolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Loeber
authors.forename: Dustin A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Pardini
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D019958:Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D019955:Conduct Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010414:Pennsylvania / Q000453:epidemiology; D012307:Risk Factors; D055815:Young Adult