ABSTRACT

This chapter provides a brief review of some of the methods that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders has used to place children and adolescents with conduct disorders (CD) into meaningful subtypes over its most recent revisions. It discusses a more in-depth discussion of one particularly promising approach that has its conceptual foundations in the construct of psychopathy and that has recently been integrated into the most recent revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The chapter explores the implications of this approach for both assessment and treatment. In addition, children with childhoodonset CD tend to come from more dysfunctional family environments, characterized by high rates of parental psychopathology, high rates of family conflict, and the presence of dysfunctional parenting practices. Thus, callous and unemotional traits seem to be important for understanding and treating antisocial children and adolescents, just as psychopathy has proven to be important for understanding and treating antisocial adults. ,.