Antisocial Personality Disorder in Children

Key things to know What the evidence shows
How common is it? ASPD cannot be diagnosed <18; Conduct Disorder ages 5–10: ~7% boys / 3% girls in UK data
Is it more common among children? Not applicable to ASPD
Are children at higher risk? #N/A
How much higher is the risk? Up to ~50% of youth with Conduct Disorder have been reported to develop ASPD in some clinical/longitudinal literature; not a universal transition probability
How often can it be missed? Not ASPD diagnosis; high risk of mislabelling children
Does it show up differently among children? Fundamentally different developmental framework
How might it look different? Aggression, deceit, serious rule violations, property destruction etc. should be assessed as Conduct Disorder; isolated misbehaviour ≠ CD and certainly ≠ ASPD
What commonly occurs alongside it? ADHD; ODD; substance use; mood/anxiety disorders
What can it be confused with? ODD; Conduct Disorder; ADHD; trauma; developmentally normal boundary-testing
Common screening tool No ASPD screening — assess Conduct Disorder developmentally
Separate screening tool for children Conduct Disorder assessment; APSD measures psychopathic traits, not ASPD diagnosis

Most often taken Self-Assessments

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