Changes in daily mood and self-restraint among undercontrolled preadolescents: a time-series analysis of "acting out"

Acting out among boys with disruptive behavior disorders was investigated by evaluating how changes in their daily moods predicted changes in their behavior.

During a 6-week period, 20 preadolescent boys enrolled in day treatment programs rated their mood upon arrival at school, and teachers rated their behavior at the end of the day. Time-series and path-analytic methodologies were used to analyze the data.

The boys did engage in emotional acting out, in that their morning moods predicted their subsequent disruptive behavior, controlling for both individual differences and their behavior the previous day. Boys' mood changes served as a mediator between the intensity of interpersonal conflicts in their lives (with peers and among significant adults) and decrements in their self-restraint. Acting-out behavior was associated with defensive processes, in that boys who reported low subjective distress and whom the teachers rated as high in denial of distress had the strongest links between their moods and behavior. Individual differences in levels of conduct problems, but not hyperactivity, also predicted acting out.

Emotional processes and defensive acting out may often be integral aspects of conduct-disordered behavior.