AGGRESSIVE CONDUCT DISORDER - THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL-CLASS, SEX AND AGE ON THE CLINICAL PICTURE

Past studies have shown that aggressive conduct disorder is more common in boys and in families of low socioeconomic status, and that affected children are usually seen in child psychiatry clinics before the age of 10. The influence of socioeconomic status, sex and age at admission on the clinical picture of this disorder was studied. A series of 58 affected children was divided into 2 groups on each of the 3 factors and compared the groups on 175 variables. Little evidence that the children''s difficulties varied with social class, sex or age was found. This apparent constancy of the clinical picture reinforces the idea that aggressive conduct disorder is a valid though broadly defined psychiatric syndrome.