ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we will provide an outline of the developmental trajectories typical of aggressive and oppositional behavior, conducted through abilities, shared among preschool toddlers, aimed at defending oneself and expressing one’s own autonomy. Such behaviors reduce with age and leave room for more mature and refined modes of managing relationships with others. Thanks to the contributions of parents and reference adults, over time, children indeed get to develop prosocial behaviors, which will allow functional adaptation to their life context.
In adolescence, rule-breaking behaviors often increase once more, but only in some cases is this a signal of a deeper issue, worthy of clinical attention.
In situations in which biological risk factors (such as the tendency of newborns to slowly adapt to the environment and biological rhythms and to show irritability and high levels of reactivity to environmental stimuli) meet with unfavorable environmental factors (such as a particularly coercing and/or inconsistent parenting style), these behaviors may instead persist and evolve into psychopathological frames, such as in the case of oppositional-defiant disorder and conduct disorder. In this chapter, we will review the diagnostic criteria from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (the DSM is published by the American Psychiatric Association and is used by professionals and researchers – it outlines standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders) together with patients’ and families’ experiences of the most common “Disruptive, Impulse-Control, and Conduct Disorders” (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).
