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Background and Objectives: To specify which of the documented cognitive and emotional deficits characterize adolescents with conduct disorder (CD) compared with high-risk controls.
Methods: High-risk adolescent males with and without CD were compared on intellectual efficiency, cognitive flexibility, impulsivity, alexithymia, and cognitive coping strategies.
Substance use was controlled for in analyses.
Results: Both groups showed normal intellectual efficiency and cognitive flexibility, as well as heightened alexithymia and behavioral impulsivity. Youths with CD evidenced more self-defeating and black-and-white thinking under stress, and more acting-out under negative affect, than those without CD.
Conclusions: Deficits specific to CD resided in facets of emotional functioning and cognitive coping that might be targeted by a coping skills intervention
