Acting Up and Acting Out: Conduct Disorder and Competing Media Frames

Abstract

This article compares diverse symbolic frames for the childhood psychiatric diagnosis “Conduct Disorder” (CD) found in the popular media with the dominant medicalized frame in the professional literature. Although vestiges of earlier frameworks remain, almost all professional accounts frame the disorder as a way of “acting out” the sick role. In contrast, the popular media use various culturally consistent frames, including delinquently “acting up.” However, unlike other instances in which the public and professionals lack a common understanding about a health condition, there has been no overt contestation about the definition of CD. Social, policy, and theoretical implications are explored.