ABSTRACT
According to the recent National Institutes of Health State-of-the-Science Panel Report on the Prevention of Violence (National Institutes of Health, 2004), no early intervention program has prevented the long-term diagnosis of conduct disorder. One explanation involves the large number of factors that contribute to antisocial behavior, factors that may become chronic and intractable by adolescence. The early-starter model (Moffitt, 1993; Patterson et al., 1992) posits two groups of antisocial youth. The first group has been labeled "adolescence-limited"; their early behavior problems are only moderately problematic and occur only during adolescence. In contrast, an "early-starter" group initiates antisocial behavior in early childhood, and-iliisbehavior persists across the lifespan. Because they can be identified by age 5, the early-starter group is a prime target for long-term prevention (Lochman et al., 1995). These children are the focus of this report.
