The Dynamics Of Threat, Fear, And Intentionality In The Conduct Disorders: Longitudinal Findings In The Children Of Women With Post-Natal Depression

Abstract

Abstract Conduct disorders among young children are common in the general population (prevalence 5-10% depending on the threshold). They are disabling, often leading to antisocial behaviours and multiple mental health and personality problems in later life (Moffitt et al., 2002). The causes involve an interplay between inherited characteristics such as emotional expression and regulation, and family and wider social influences (Hill, 2002). Commonly, conduct disorder symptoms develop in association with high levels of environmental threat in the form of parental hostility, physical abuse, and marital discord and violence. This is probably accounted for in part by correlated parental and child risks, but is also likely to reflect a direct causal relationship (Jaffee, Moffitt, Caspi, Taylor, & Arseneault, 2002; Jaffee et al., 2005). The implications of high levels of chronic threat for social information processing and emotion regulation were addressed by Dodge and colleagues in their hypotheses linking physical abuse to hostile attributional biases, anger, and reactive aggression (Orobio et al., 2002). However, studies of other social information processes, and the role of fear, in the conduct disorders have been conducted largely independently of consideration of the role of environmental threat. Deficits in emotion recognition (Denham et al., 2002), pragmatic language use (Gilmour et al., 2004), and social fear processing (Blair et al., 2006) have been conceptualized as risk factors for the conduct disorders without substantial environmental contributions. Two pathways to conduct disorders have thus been hypothesized: one involving anger and reactive aggression with a substantial threat contribution and the other characterized by limitations in social and emotional processing, arising without substantial environmental influences leading to callous-unemotional traits and proactive aggression. Studies of the neurobiology of aggression and conduct disorders have focused mainly on the second pathway implicating impaired social emotion processing arising without substantial environmental contributions.