Network and Exploratory Graph Analyses of Conduct Disorder and Oppositional Defiant Disorder Symptoms in Adolescents

Initially, this study used network analysis to examine the network properties (centrality and edges) of Conduct Disorder (CD) symptoms and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) symptoms jointly. Following this analysis, it used exploratory graph analysis (EGA) to examine the dimensionality of the symptoms in this network model. Data were collected from the parents of 882 adolescents (age range 12 to 17 years) who rated their children’s CD and ODD symptoms. Overall, of the five nodes with higher centrality values, three were from the CD aggression dimensions (“cruel to people”, “fight”, and “stolen with confronting”), while the other two were from the deceitfulness/theft dimension (“stolen—not confronting”) and the anger/irritable mood dimension ODD (“temper”). In relation to edge weights, there were only modest associations between the nodes, especially between the CD nodes, and between the CD and ODD nodes. The CD symptom for “lies”, and ODD symptoms for “annoys” and “defies” showed evidence of being bridge symptoms. The EGA indicated four dimensions, with three being comparable to the DSM-5-TR dimensions of CD aggression, CD serious rules violations, and ODD anger/irritable mood. The fourth dimension reflected anti-social behavior, with symptoms from across the different CD and ODD dimensions. These findings can be interpreted as suggesting that CD and ODD are related, but they are distinct disorders, and their symptom dimensions do not entirely align with the DSM-5-TR classifications.