Individual and Environmental Factors Associated with the Persistence and Decrease of Disruptive Behavior Disorders in Boys and Girls: A Six-Year Longitudinal Study

Children with severe behavior disorders in elementary school such as opposition defiant disorder and conduct disorder represent a challenge for the school system. Despite treatment, these disruptive behavior disorders are recognized for their high risk of persistence from childhood to adolescence (Biederman et al., 2008, Lahey et al., 2005; Renk, 2008; Whittinger et al., 2007). However, in a relatively important number of children, disruptive behaviors do diminish, but scientific knowledge is lacking on the factors associated with this decrease. This longitudinal study aims to determine if individual and environmental factors measured at study entry can differentiate children engaging in persisting or in decreasing trajectories of disruptive behavior disorders and to verify the moderating effect of gender on these characteristics. The severity of the disruptive behavior disorders and the intensity of services received were controlled at study entry. The sample consisted of 192 boys and 76 girls from elementary schools (M = 9,8 years; é.t. 1,79 years) receiving school-based mental-health services for behavior disorders. The latent class analysis was realised over a period of six years, during which four trajectories (persistent, decreasing, ascending and stable low) of disruptive behaviors were identified. However, only two were used in this study: 12.3% of children (24% girls) as engaging in a persistent trajectory of disruptive behaviors while 32.5% (30% girls) belonged to the decreasing trajectory. The results also suggest that regardless of the trajectory to which they belong, children receiving school-based services at study entry, were experiencing several personal and environmental difficulties. Regardless of these similarities, multivariate regression analyses identified three factors discriminating children from both trajectories. Specifically, with regard to individual factors, a more reactive temperament increased the probability of belonging to the persisting trajectory for girls. For environmental factors, children of parents with an anxiety disorder, but not a depressive disorder, were more likely to engage in a persistent trajectory of behavior disorders. These results underpin the importance of considering parents’ difficulties in interventions aiming to prevent the persistence of disruptive behavior problems in childhood.