Abstract
Previous research has pointed towards a link between emotion dysregulation and aggressive behavior in children. Emotion regulation difficulties are not specific for children with persistent aggression problems, i.e. oppositional defiant disorder or conduct disorder (ODD/CD), children with other psychiatric conditions, such as autism spectrum disorders or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, have emotion regulation difficulties too. On a behavioral level some overlap exists between these disorders and comorbidity is high. The aim of this study was therefore twofold: 1) to examine emotion regulation difficulties in 65 boys with ODD/CD in comparison to a non-clinical control group (NC) of 38 boys (8–12 years) using a performance measure (Ultimatum Game), parent report and self-report, and 2) to establish to what extent emotion regulation in the ODD/CD group was correlated with severity of autism and/or attention deficit traits. Results on the Ultimatum Game showed that the ODD/CD group rejected more ambiguous offers than the NC group, which is seen as an indication of poor emotion regulation. Parents also reported that the ODD/CD group experienced more emotion regulation problems in daily life than the NC group. In contrast to these cognitive and behavioral measures, self-reports did not reveal any difference, indicating that boys with ODD/CD do not perceive themselves as having impairments in regulating their emotions. Emotional decision making within the ODD/CD group was not related to variation in autism or attention deficit traits. These results support the idea that emotion dysregulation is an important problem within ODD/CD, yet boys with ODD/CD have reduced awareness of this.
Highlights
Children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) and Conduct Disorder (CD) are characterized by persistent antisocial and aggressive behaviors [1]
Previous research has suggested a link between emotion dysregulation and aggressive behavior in children, though these studies mainly focused on parent and self-reports of emotion regulation
Because emotion regulation difficulties may not be specific for boys with oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder (ODD/CD), but may characterize children with other psychiatric conditions, such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD) or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the second aim of the current study was to examine to what extent their emotion regulation difficulties were affected by co-occurring autism traits and attention deficit traits
Summary
Children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) and Conduct Disorder (CD) are characterized by persistent antisocial and aggressive behaviors [1]. Identifying risk factors for antisocial and aggressive behavior that can be targets for potential change is important. It has been proposed that problems in emotion regulation, referring to “the processes by which individuals influence which emotions they have, when they have them, and how they experience and express these emotions” [3], may be an important mechanism driving behavioral problems in ODD [4,5,6,7]. Impaired emotion regulation skills are thought to drive behavior problems in children with other psychiatric disorders, such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD) [8] and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) [9]. There is a need to investigate if emotion regulation difficulties exist in those with ODD/CD, and to what extent emotion regulation difficulties are related to comorbid autism and attention deficit traits in those with ODD/CD, using cognitive, behavioral and self-report measures of emotion regulation
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