Volume 61, Issue 3

Juvenile Delinquency and Attention Deficit Disorder: Boys' Developmental Trajectories from Age 3 to Age 15

Terrie E. Moffitt

Corresponding Author

University of Wisconsin—Madison

regarding this article may be addressed to Terrie E. Moffitt, Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin, 1202 West Johnson Street, Madison, WI 53706.Search for more papers by this author
First published: June 1990
Citations: 8

This work was supported by USPHS grant 1 R01 MH43746 and MH45070 from the Antisocial and Violent Behavior Branch of the National Institute of Mental Health and a grant from the University of Wisconsin Graduate Research Committee. The Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Research Unit is directed by Phil A. Silva, and is supported by the Medical Research Council of New Zealand. Appreciation is expressed to Rob McGee, J. C. Anderson, Pat Brasch, the psychometrists who administered the WISC‐R, and the police department of Dunedin, New Zealand. Avshalom Caspi, Rolf Loeber, and anonymous reviewers are thanked for their suggestions about the manuscript.

Abstract

This article describes a longitudinal analysis of the behavior of a birth cohort of 435 boys. 4 groups were defined at age 13 on the basis of both self‐reported delinquent behavior and professional diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder: ADD + delinquent, ADD only, delinquent only, and nondisordered. Biennial correlates of delinquency (antisocial behavior problems, verbal intelligence, reading difficulty, and family adversity) were traced across childhood. The ADD + delinquent boys consistently fared the worst on the assessments of family adversity, verbal intelligence, and reading. Their antisocial behavior began before school age, escalated at school entry, and persisted into adolescence. The ADD‐only boys had normal family, intelligence, and reading scores, and showed only mild antisocial behavior in middle childhood. The delinquent‐only boys showed no early risk from family, low intelligence, or reading deficit, and remained relatively free of conduct problems until they initiated delinquency at age 13. Persistence of criminal offending beyond adolescence is predicted for the ADD + delinquent boys.