Aggression and psychopathology in detained adolescent females

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate a group of detained females with regard to aggression and psychopathology and to examine the relationship between the two conditions. For this purpose, a representative sample of 216 detained adolescent females aged 12–18 (mean 15.5) was studied with a standard set of self-report instruments, while a subgroup of 73 parents was interviewed by telephone on the participants' externalizing psychopathology. Based on aggression items derived from the Conduct Disorder section of the Kiddie-SADS, the following three aggression subgroups were identified: (1) non-aggressive (NA; 41%), (2) mildly aggressive (MA; 39%), and (3) severely aggressive (SA; 20%). In addition to high levels of psychopathology for the group as a whole, differences were found between aggression groups, with the NA group demonstrating the lowest levels, the MA group intermediate levels, and the SA group the highest levels. These differences were most pronounced for externalizing psychopathology, and were also found for post-traumatic stress symptomatology (PTSS) and suicidality. The clinical implications of these findings should be investigated in the future, but may well relate to issues of diagnostic identification and administration of adequate and targeted treatment, especially with regard to PTSS and suicidality. Since the current study was cross-sectional, the predictive effect of the investigated relationships should be the focus of further study.