PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

Rolf Loeber

Publications and source records attributed to Rolf Loeber.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2004

Gun carrying and conduct disorder: a highly combustible combination? Implications for juvenile justice and mental and public health.

OBJECTIVES: To examine concealed gun carrying between the ages of 12 and 17 years in a population of clinic-referred boys, many of whom qualified for a disruptive behavior disorder, including conduct disorder (CD); to identify factors and diagnoses related to concealed gun carrying; and to examine the extent to which gun carrying is associated with crime in adulthood. DESIGN: Longitudinal follow-up study. SETTING: Pittsburgh, Pa, and Athens and Atlanta, Ga. PARTICIPANTS: One hundred seventy-seven clinic-referred boys, first assessed between the ages of 7 and 12 years and followed up yearly until the age of 19 years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Violence, property offenses, and drug charges in adulthood. RESULTS: Between the ages of 12 and 17 years, 1 in 5 participants carried a concealed gun, and the annual prevalence increased linearly with age. More than half (61.1%) carried a gun for 1 year only. Gun carrying was significantly (incident rate ratio, 3.93%; 95% confidence interval, 1.60-9.60) associated with CD. Conduct disorder, maternal psychopathy, victimization, and parental monitoring increased the risk of gun carrying by a factor of 8. Adult crime was best predicted by gun carrying, CD, and parental monitoring. Gun carrying predicted drug charges, but not violence or property offenses. CONCLUSIONS: Even though the carrying of handguns by juveniles is prohibited, young men with symptoms of CD are more likely to carry guns than young men without CD. The findings are discussed in terms of the need for the inclusion of gun carrying among the symptoms of CD.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Reading problems and depressed mood.

Although reading difficulties show well-established overlaps with disruptive behavior disorders in childhood, much less is known about reading-disabled children's vulnerability to emotional difficulties. Using longitudinal data from 6 assessments of boys in the Pittsburgh Youth Study, we found robust links between severe, persistent reading problems and increased risk for depressed mood in a community sample of boys aged 7 and 10 years at initial assessment, though not in those who had already entered their teens. These associations could not be accounted for in terms of selected family risks or comorbid disruptive behaviors; instead, the pattern of the findings pointed to the existence of more direct causal processes whereby reading problems influence younger boys' risk of depressed mood.

Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorder↗
PubMed2003

Untangling developmental relations between depressed mood and delinquency in male adolescents.

Relations between depressed mood and delinquency were investigated in a longitudinal sample of 506 urban adolescent males across ages 13.5-17.5, while adjusting for common risk factors. Adolescents provided yearly reports of their delinquent activities and depressed mood, as well as reports of peer delinquency at age 13.5 (i.e., baseline). Primary caregivers and teachers provided reports of risk factors for depressed mood and delinquency such as aggressive behavior problems and low academic achievement. Two-level hierarchical generalized linear models of concurrent relations indicated that depressed mood predicted concurrent variety of delinquent acts, and more variety of delinquent acts predicted concurrent depressed mood, even after controlling common risk factors. Longitudinal analyses indicated that after controlling for common risk factors, depressed mood had a more robust effect on delinquency variety trajectories than delinquency variety had on depressed mood trajectories. Time-averaged depressed mood significantly predicted a more positive rate of change in delinquency variety across time. Baseline delinquency variety predicted baseline depressed mood and time-averaged delinquency variety predicted a more positive rate of change in depressed mood; however, both effects were marginally significant. Implications of the results for theory and intervention are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Developmental trajectories of childhood disruptive behaviors and adolescent delinquency: a six-site, cross-national study.

This study used data from 6 sites and 3 countries to examine the developmental course of physical aggression in childhood and to analyze its linkage to violent and nonviolent offending outcomes in adolescence. The results indicate that among boys there is continuity in problem behavior from childhood to adolescence and that such continuity is especially acute when early problem behavior takes the form of physical aggression. Chronic physical aggression during the elementary school years specifically increases the risk for continued physical violence as well as other nonviolent forms of delinquency during adolescence. However, this conclusion is reserved primarily for boys, because the results indicate no clear linkage between childhood physical aggression and adolescent offending among female samples despite notable similarities across male and female samples in the developmental course of physical aggression in childhood.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Child disobedience and noncompliance: a review.

Child disobedience and noncompliance is a recurring problem frequently brought to the attention of pediatricians and others working with children and their parents. This article reviews empirical studies concerning childhood noncompliance. Definitions of noncompliance (also called disobedience) are presented, and observational studies that have measured noncompliance in the laboratory and at home are reviewed. Studies show considerable variability in the prevalence of noncompliance, but demonstrate that it is a frequent problem for parents. Longitudinal data from the Pittsburgh Youth Study are presented to more closely examine the onset and stability of noncompliance in childhood and adolescence. Evidence suggests that extreme childhood noncompliance is relatively stable over time, peaking slightly during early adolescence and decreasing during late adolescence. Studies indicate that for some children noncompliance predicts aggression and externalizing problems. Antecedents of noncompliance including parental discipline techniques and child characteristics are reviewed. Parent training programs designed to reduce noncompliance are described, and the effectiveness of such programs is examined.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

What are adolescent antecedents to antisocial personality disorder?

BACKGROUND: This paper fills a gap because there are very few studies that prospectively predict antisocial personality disorder (APD) from psychopathology earlier in life in clinic-referred samples of young males. METHOD: The paper addresses the continuity between conduct disorder (CD) and other forms of psychopathology during ages 13 17 and modified APD at ages 18 and 19 (modified to remove the DSM-IV requirement of pre-existing CD by age 15) in the Developmental Trends Study. RESULTS: The results show that 82 90% of APD cases met criteria for CD at least once during ages 13 17, and very few youths who met criteria for ODD during this period progressed to APD without intermediate CD. While CD is a strong predictor of modified APD, when other factors were accounted for in regression analyses, the best predictors were callous/unemotional behaviour, depression and marijuana use. ADHD during ages 13 17 was not significant in the final model. Males with CD during adolescence who progressed to APD tended to commit more violence, as evident from their court records. CONCLUSIONS: Implications are discussed for the conceptualization of developmental models leading to APD, the strengthening of relevant symptoms of CD predictive of APD, and preventive and remedial interventions.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

A question for DSM-V: which better predicts persistent conduct disorder--delinquent acts or conduct symptoms?

BACKGROUND: Conduct disorder (CD), a psychiatric index of antisocial behaviour, shares similarities with delinquency, a criminological index. This study sought to examine which factors in childhood predict a repeated diagnosis of CD in adolescence, and whether self-reported delinquent acts enhance the utility of symptoms of CD in predicting later persistent CD. METHOD: Longitudinal data used in this paper come from a clinic-referred sample of 177 boys, along with their parents and teachers, who were assessed using a structured clinical interview. The boys also reported on their delinquent behaviours, as well as a broad range of other family and life events. RESULTS: Before age 13, 77 boys met criteria for CD according to their parent, 69 according to their own report, and 36 reported three or more delinquent acts. Forty-eight boys (29%) met criteria for CD three or more times between 13 and 17. In childhood, delinquency overlapped, but was distinct from CD. Both were present in 28 cases, while 41 cases had CD without delinquency, and eight had delinquency without CD. When tested as predictors of later persistent CD, child-reported CD was the strongest predictor of later persistent CD, but self-reported delinquency was stronger than parent-reported CD. A final model of significant predictors included child-reported CD, delinquency, poor child communication with parents, and maternal prenatal smoking. CONCLUSIONS: It appears that delinquency does add uniquely to the prediction of persistent CD. It may be useful to expand the diagnostic criteria for CD accordingly.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Are within-individual causes of delinquency the same as between-individual causes?

BACKGROUND: Previous studies of the causes of delinquency have been based on between-individual correlations. This paper aims to study the causes of delinquency by comparing within-individual and between-individual correlations of risk factors with delinquency. METHOD: A total of 506 boys in the oldest sample of the Pittsburgh Youth Study were followed up in seven data waves between ages 13.8 and 17.8 on average. RESULTS: Poor parental supervision, low parental reinforcement and low involvement of the boy in family activities were the most important causes of delinquency according to forward-lagged within-individual correlations. Poor housing was positively related to delinquency for boys living in bad neighbourhoods but not for boys living in good neighbourhoods. CONCLUSIONS: Forward-lagged within-individual correlations provide more valid information about the causes of delinquency than do between-individual correlations. Peer delinquency was the strongest correlate of delinquency according to between-individual correlations but was not a cause of delinquency according to forward-lagged within-individual correlations.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Lost opportunities for intervention: undetected markers for the development of serious juvenile delinquency.

INTRODUCTION: Persistent serious delinquency in young males rarely starts without a history of problem behaviour in childhood. This paper addresses the following questions: (1) At what age does persistent serious offending emerge for the first time? (2) What proportion of persistent serious delinquent boys qualifies for a diagnosis of a disruptive behaviour disorder? (3) What proportion of persistent serious delinquent boys receive help for their behavioural or educational problems, either from mental health professionals or from personnel at school? METHOD: Eight waves of assessments from the oldest sample (ages 13 to 18.5) of the Pittsburgh Youth Study were used to classify boys as persistent serious violent offenders, persistent serious property offenders, persistent non-serious offenders, and non-offenders based on their self-reports. Juvenile court records, diagnostic information and information about help for mental health problems were used. RESULTS: Almost half of the boys who eventually become a persistent serious offender already have an onset of their serious delinquent behaviour by age 12. Two-thirds of the boys who come to the attention of the juvenile court already had behaviour problems for at least five years, and one-third were diagnosed as having a disruptive behaviour disorder by age 13. However, less than half of the persistent serious delinquents had received any help from either mental health professionals or from personnel in schools. CONCLUSIONS: Early behaviour problems and a diagnosis of disruptive behaviour disorder constitute targets for intervention. The relatively low rate of interventions for boys with these problems and who later become persistent serious offenders indicates a high under-utilization of opportunities to prevent serious delinquency by parents and professionals.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

How many of the offspring born to teenage fathers are produced by repeated serious delinquents?

INTRODUCTION: Recent studies have found an association between teenage fatherhood and delinquency. Yet, it is not clear whether there is a dose response relationship between the severity of delinquency and teenage fatherhood. This paper quantifies the public health impact of serious delinquency on the risk of impregnation and teenage fatherhood among urban, adolescent males. METHODS: Using data up to age 19, rates of sexual activity, impregnation and fatherhood are compared among three groups: minor/non-delinquents, moderate delinquents and repeat serious delinquents. RESULTS: The results demonstrate a dose response relationship between delinquency and age of onset of sexual activity, whereby more serious delinquents began having sex at younger ages. By age 19, almost half of repeat serious delinquents (46.7%) had caused a pregnancy, and nearly a third (31.4%) had fathered children. Rates of impregnation and fatherhood were twice as high among repeat serious delinquents compared with moderate and minor/non-delinquents. Repeat serious delinquents were also more likely than others to father multiple children; of the children produced by teenage fathers in this study, almost two-thirds (65%) were fathered by repeat serious delinquents. During late adolescence, repeat serious delinquents continued to be at greater risk for fathering children, as they were continuing to have unsafe sex more frequently and with more partners. CONCLUSIONS: Repeat serious delinquents comprise a crucial but hard-to-reach population for family planning services and parenthood education. Programmes and services for teenage pregnancy prevention need extra funding and efforts to address this population, in terms of both the primary prevention of pregnancy and the prevention of repeat pregnancies.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Characteristics of girls with early onset disruptive and antisocial behaviour.

BACKGROUND: Crime, particularly among juvenile females, has increased in recent years. Little is known, however, about the development and precursors in childhood of female delinquent behaviour. This is primarily due to a lack of consensus on how to define and assess female antisocial behaviour, and a lack of studies using sufficiently large samples. METHOD: A community sample of 2451 girls between the ages of five and eight years were recruited into a longitudinal study following the enumeration of 103,238 households in the city of Pittsburgh. Data on disruptive and antisocial behaviours were collected from parents, teachers and children during the first wave of the study. RESULTS: Prevalence rates of disruptive disorders varied by choice of informants and measurement thresholds. The prevalence of most disruptive behaviours was similar across the four age cohorts. Where there were differences, parents of younger girls tended to report fewer problematic behaviours compared with parents of older girls. Teachers reported more disruptive behaviours than parents and, by their reports, older girls were more likely to show oppositional/defiant behaviour and relational aggression than younger girls. Girls scoring highly on several domains relative to their peers were over-represented in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. CONCLUSIONS: A range of disruptive disorders are present among a subgroup of females at an early age, particularly among girls in the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Longitudinal follow-up is required to examine the developmental trajectories and predictive utility of these behaviours. The implications for clinical interventions are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Adolescent outcomes of childhood conduct disorder among clinic-referred boys: predictors of improvement.

Much remains to be learned about the adolescent outcomes of clinic-referred boys whose childhood conduct problems are serious enough to meet diagnostic criteria for conduct disorder (CD). Six structured diagnostic assessments were conducted over 7 years of 73 clinic-referred 7-12-year-old boys who met criteria for CD in Wave 1. There were substantial individual differences in the adolescent outcomes of CD, ranging from worsening to sustained recovery, with most boys showing persistent, but fluctuating levels of CD. Improvement in CD was not accounted for by treatment or incarceration, but more positive outcomes over Waves 2-7 were predicted prospectively with substantial accuracy, using a combination of baseline predictors: less initial severity of CD, fewer symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, higher child verbal intelligence, greater family socioeconomic advantage, and not having antisocial biological parents.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Serious delinquent behavior, sensation seeking, and electrodermal arousal.

Low tonic skin conductance level (SCL) has been related, inconsistently, to both delinquency and sensation-seeking. This study tests the hypothesis that there is an interaction such that high sensation seeking delinquents, in particular, have low SCLs. Participants consisted of 335 boys from the Pittsburgh Youth Study classified as serious delinquents or controls based upon 10 years of prospectively collected self-report delinquency data. Participants' skin conductance was evaluated at age 16 along with several personality and neuropsychological measures. Both delinquency and sensation seeking were characterized by low SCL. However, there was no evidence to suggest that the presence of both of these factors together lead to especially low skin conductance levels. This finding is not explained by differences between the groups on measures of negative emotionality, IQ, socioeconomic status, or impulsivity.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed2002

Waxing and waning in concert: dynamic comorbidity of conduct disorder with other disruptive and emotional problems over 7 years among clinic-referred boys.

Six waves of structured diagnostic assessments were conducted of 168 clinic-referred 7- to 12-year-olds, over 7 years. Wave-to-wave changes in the number of conduct disorder (CD) behaviors were paralleled by correlated changes in the numbers of symptoms of oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, and anxiety. In addition, CD in Wave 1 predicted levels of ODD, ADHD, depression, and anxiety in later waves when initial levels of those symptoms were controlled, but only ODD in Wave 1 predicted CD in later waves when initial CD levels were controlled. These findings indicate a striking degree of dynamic comorbidity between CD and other types of psychopathology and provide an initial empirical framework for needed developmental models of comorbidity.

Affective Symptoms↗
PubMed2002

Risk and promotive effects in the explanation of persistent serious delinquency in boys.

Risk and promotive effects were investigated as predictors of persistent serious delinquency in male participants of the Pittsburgh Youth Study (R. Loeber, D. P. Farrington, M. Stouthamer-Loeber, & W. B. van Kammen, 1998), living in different neighborhoods. Participants were studied over ages 13-19 years for the oldest sample and 7-13 years for the youngest sample. Risk and promotive effects were studied in 6 domains: child behavior, child attitudes, school and leisure activities, peer behaviors, family functioning, and demographics. Regression models improved when promotive effects were included with risk effects in predicting persistent serious delinquency. Disadvantaged neighborhoods, compared with better neighborhoods, had a higher prevalence of risk effects and a lower prevalence of promotive effects. However, predictive relations between risk and promotive effects and persistent serious delinquency were linear and similar across neighborhood socioeconomic status.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder: a review of the past 10 years, part II.

OBJECTIVE: To review empirical findings on oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD). METHOD: Selected summaries of the literature over the past decade are presented. RESULTS: Research on ODD and CD during the past decade has addressed the complexity involved in identifying the primary risk factors and developmental pathways to disruptive behavior disorders (DBD). In some domains, research is entering an entirely new phase because of the availability of new technologies. In others, larger data sets and more complicated methodological and statistical techniques are testing increasingly complex models. Yet questions remain regarding the most useful subtyping systems, the identification of the most significant risk factors, and the relationships between risk factors from multiple domains. CONCLUSIONS: Convincing evidence of causal linkages remains elusive. Research has questioned the notion that CD is intractable, especially when multiple domains of risk and impairment are the targets of intervention. It is apparent that there is not one single causative factor; thus it is not likely that one single modality will suffice to treat CD. Future steps will involve the restructuring of diagnostic criteria to capture adequate subtypes and indicators, clarification of the neurological underpinnings of the disorder, and refinement in the models available to explain the varied pathways to DBD.

Achievement↗
PubMed1999

Association of parental psychopathology to the comorbid disorders of boys with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder.

This study examined whether particular forms of parental psychopathology are related to similar forms of comorbid psychopathology in offspring with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Parental disorders were assessed using maternal interviews, and child disorders were assessed using multiple-informant interviews for 111 clinic-referred boys (aged 7-12) with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed., rev.; American Psychiatric Association, 1987) ADHD. Associations between parental and child internalizing disorders and between parental and child externalizing disorders were found, but associations across categories of disorder (i.e., internalizing and externalizing) were not. Similar relationships were observed in 66 clinic-referred boys without ADHD. These findings support specific modes of familial transmission, in contrast to theories that comorbidity simply reflects more severe psychopathology in children with ADHD.

Adult↗