Prevention of Conduct Disorder through Early Intervention: A Social-Communicative Perspective

A conceptual model describing the environmental factors and parent and child characteristics that contribute to the development of conduct disorder in early childhood is proposed, based on descriptive and experimental research. Environmental stressors associated with poverty, parent characteristics including poor parenting strategies, and child characteristics including deficits in communication skills are posited to be factors that affect parent-child interactions in ways that contribute to the development of conduct disorder. Several points of intervention are identified as the basis for a multicomponent approach to prevention. Implications of the proposed model for research and practice are discussed.