Familial risks, conduct disorder and violence : A Finnish study of 278 adolescent boys and girls

The aim was to investigate the impact of familial risk factors on the development of violent behaviour and conduct disorder (CD) by gender in a sample of adolescent psychiatric patients. The study sample consisted of 278 adolescents (age 12-17) consecutively admitted to psychiatric inpatient care between April 2001 and January 2004. DSMIV psychiatric diagnoses were obtained from the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School Aged Children-Present and Lifetime (K-SADS-PL). Logistic regression analyses revealed that girls who had been physically abused at home had a 4.2-fold risk of having conduct disorder with violent behaviour (95% CI 1.4-12.2) compared to those not exposed to domestic violence. A broken primary family also increased the risk for having both violent CD (OR 7.8 95 % CI 1.7-36.4) and non-violent CD (OR 7.0 95% CI 1.5-33.5) among girls. Among boys, no statistically significant association was found between any familial risk factors and later CD. The results suggest that being physically abused by parents may influence the development of conduct disorder including violent behaviour among girls. This emphasizes the importance of early recognition of domestic violence. In girls, the absence of primary family seems to associate strongly with the development of CD, and should be taken into consideration by physicians and other professionals working with young people.