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Temperament and disruptive behavior disorders
1Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, J.W. Goethe University, Frankfurt a.M., Germany.
Insights
Difficult infant temperament, specifically high novelty seeking and low harm avoidance, predicts later aggressive behavior and conduct disorder in adolescents. These temperament traits are key risk factors for developing disruptive behaviors.
Area of Science:
- Child Psychology
- Developmental Psychiatry
- Behavioral Genetics
Background:
- Difficult temperament in infancy is linked to later aggressive behavior in children.
- Specific traits like high novelty seeking (NS) and low harm avoidance (HA) are associated with increased risk for disruptive behavior disorders.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between infant temperament traits and conduct disorder in adolescents.
- To examine temperament profiles in adolescents diagnosed with conduct disorder, emotional disorders, eating disorders, and personality disorders.
Main Methods:
- The Junior Temperament and Character Inventory was administered to 65 adolescent patients.
- Temperament scores were analyzed in relation to diagnoses of conduct disorder, emotional disorders, eating disorders, and personality disorders.
Main Results:
- High novelty seeking and low harm avoidance significantly correlated with externalizing symptoms like aggression and delinquency.
- Adolescents with conduct disorder exhibited significantly higher NS scores than other clinical groups and the normative population.
- Lower HA scores were found in conduct-disordered adolescents compared to other clinical groups, but not the normative population.
- Elevated NS scores markedly increased the relative risk for conduct disorder.
Conclusions:
- Infant temperament, particularly high novelty seeking, is a significant predictor of conduct disorder in adolescents.
- Temperament profiling may aid in identifying at-risk individuals for early intervention in disruptive behavior disorders.
Abstract:
In several studies on children with conduct disorder, difficult temperament in infancy was one of the major variables in the explanation of later aggressive behavior. According to these studies, subjects with a combination of high novelty seeking, low harm avoidance and low reward dependence (NS high, HA + RD low) should be most at risk for the development of disruptive behavior disorders. The Junior Temperament and Character Inventory was given to a clinical sample of 65 adolescent patients of both sexes with the diagnoses of conduct disorder (with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), emotional disorder (anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, depressive disorder), eating disorder (anorexia, bulimia) or personality disorder (borderline and narcissistic personality disorder). High novelty seeking and low harm avoidance were significantly correlated with externalizing symptoms like aggression and delinquency. In conduct-disordered children and adolescents, we found significantly higher scores of NS compared to the other clinical groups and the normative population, and significantly lower scores of harm avoidance compared to the other clinical groups, but not compared to the normative population. The relative risk of having a conduct disorder was markedly higher in those children and adolescents with elevated scores of novelty seeking.