Original ArticleDisruptive Behavior in Preschool Children: Distinguishing Normal Misbehavior from Markers of Current and Later Childhood Conduct Disorder
Section snippets
Methods
Preschoolers between 3 and 5.11 years of age were recruited from multiple sites throughout the greater metropolitan St. Louis area for participation in the Preschool Depression Study. Recruitment was done through primary care practices and preschools/daycares in an effort to increase the diversity of the final sample. Participants were screened via a validated checklist to identify those with symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD) or other psychiatric disorders, and healthy controls.17
Results
There were 273 participants who had at least one assessment during both the preschool (3-5.11 years) and school age periods (6-9.11 years) and were therefore included in the analyses. There were 86 children with 1 preschool assessment, 113 children with 2 preschool assessments, and 74 children with 3 preschool assessments. There were 38 children with 1 school-age assessment, 153 children with 2 school-age assessments, and 82 children with 3 school-age assessments. The mean age of the children
Discussion
The first aim in our study was to investigate which misbehaviors were normative and common among preschool children. Losing one's temper, low-intensity destruction of property, and low-intensity deceitfulness/stealing emerged as common misbehaviors that did not serve as markers of clinical disruptive disorders. Wakschlag et al14, 15 also found that temper loss was a common misbehavior in preschoolers but that it ranged from normative problems to clinically significant levels. In a previous
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2017, Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North AmericaCitation Excerpt :Prevalence of ODD in preschoolers is estimated at 4% to 16.6%, with CD incidence at 3.9% to 6.6%. ODD specifically is associated with later mood disorders; childhood-onset CD predicts later educational and legal issues.1 Preschool-age ODD is a less robust predictor than preschool CD of poor school-age and adolescent outcomes, but still confers the risk of later impairment, likely through progression to CD.2
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Supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (R01 021187 [to J.L.]). The authors declare no conflicts of interest.