Forging a Link Between Conduct Disorder and Adolescent/Adult Offending Via Externalizing Behavior and Reading Performance

• Author: Glenn D. Walters
• DOI: 10.1177/1541204014551427
• Published date: 01 January 2016
• Date: 01 January 2016
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Forging a Link Between

Conduct Disorder and

Adolescent/Adult Offending

Via Externalizing Behavior

and Reading Performance

Glenn D. Walters

1

Abstract

The current study tested whether teacher-rated externalizing behavior and academic (reading) per-

formance mediate the relationship between childhood onset conduct disorder and self-reported

adolescent delinquency and officially recorded adult offending. All 411 boys from the Cambridge

Study of Delinquent Development served as participants in this study. Mediation analysis revealed

that the direct effect of childhood onset conduct disorder and the indirect effect of reading perfor-

mance on mid-adolescent delinquency and early adult offending were nonsignificant, but that adoles-

cent externalizing behavior had a significant indirect effect on both delinquency and adult offending.

Keywords

chaining, conduct disorder, externalizing behavior, reading performance, delinquency

Over the past 20 years, epidemiological surveys have identified a high rate of conduct disorder in

children and adolescents. The New York State Children in the Community Study, for instance,

placed the 12-month prevalence of conduct disorder for boys aged 10–16 years at 16%, for girls aged

10–13 years at 4%, and for girls aged 14–16 years at 9%(Cohen et al., 1993). The lifetime preva-

lence of conduct disorder in 9- to 16-year-old boys and girls participating in the Great Smoky Moun-

tains epidemiological study was 14%and 4%, respectively (Costello, Mustillo, Erkanli, Keeler, &

Angold, 2003). According to the National Comorbidity Survey Replication, the lifestyle prevalence

of conduct disorder is 12.0%in boys and 7.1%in girls (Nock, Kazdin, Hiripi, & Kessler, 2006).

Prevalence rates for self-reported delinquency and official criminal offending are even higher than

they are for childhood and adolescent conduct disorder. Self-reported rates of involvement in violent

and property offenses for participants in the longitudinal Rochester, Denver, and Pittsburgh youth

surveys were 15%at age 11 and nearly 50%at age 17 (Huizinga, Loeber, & Thornberry, 1993). High

1

Kutztown University, Kutztown, PA, USA

Corresponding Author:

Glenn D. Walters, Kutztown University, 361 Old Main, Kutztown, PA 19530, USA.

Email: walters@kutztown.edu

Youth Violence and JuvenileJustice

2016, Vol. 14(1) 61-75

ªThe Author(s) 2014

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DOI: 10.1177/1541204014551427

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