Date of Award

1998

Degree Name

Psychology

College

College of Liberal Arts

Type of Degree

M.A.

Document Type

Thesis

First Advisor

Roger Mooney

Second Advisor

Debra Lilly

Third Advisor

Stephen O’Keefe

Fourth Advisor

Mike Sullivan

Abstract

Conduct disorder is characterized by a pattern of rule violation in which the rights of those associated with the individual and society are violated. Frequently there are many problems at home, school, and within the community. Without early diagnosis and treatment these problems escalate. Many different techniques and assessment tools have been used to identify these individuals. Most rely on collateral informants, such as parents and teachers. Others are time consuming or not developed to specifically identify conduct disorder. The Conduct Disorder Questionnaire was developed by the author to address these issues. The questionnaire is a brief, easily scored self-report measure to identify individuals with a conduct disorder diagnosis. Two samples of adolescents were used to evaluate the questionnaire. Two hundred and eighty-three individuals with no mental health diagnosis comprised the non-diagnosed group and 47 individuals with a conduct disorder diagnosis comprised the diagnostic group. The questionnaire had good split-half internal reliability (Alpha .91). Content validity was established by deriving the items from the DSM-IV for conduct disorder. Concurrent validity was established by correlating diagnostic group membership with scores on the Conduct Disorder Questionnaire. The analysis yielded a moderate significant correlation of.47. Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are addressed.

Subject(s)

Conduct disorders in adolescence.

Personality questionnaires.

Behavior disorders in adolescence.

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