The presentation will review the current status of conduct problems (oppositional aggressive, violent, and antisocial behavior) among children and adolescents. The topics include what is known about the key features of children and their families, risk factors and causes, and the course and long-term outcomes. Parent management training, an evidence-based treatment, will be presented to convey its use clinically and its research underpinnings. I will highlight the results of our research program with inpatient and outpatient cases of children with severe antisocial behavior. The benefits include reliable changes in child behavior, parent psychopathology, and family relationships. Broader issues that therapy with children and families raise will be mentioned such as disseminating treatment to professionals and the public, providing services for seriously disturbed youth more generally, and exerting impact on social influences that promote many of the problems mental health professionals are laboring to alleviate.

Alan E. Kazdin. Ph.D. is Sterling Professor of Psychology and Professor of Child Psychiatry at Yale University and Director of the Yale Parenting Center, a service for children and families. He received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Northwestern University. Before coming to Yale, he was on the faculty of The Pennsylvania State University and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. At Yale, he has been Chairman of the Psychology Department, Director of the Yale Child Study Center at the School of Medicine, and Director of Child Psychiatric Services at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Kazdin’s research has focused primarily on the treatment of aggressive and antisocial behavior in children (inpatient and outpatient). An unrelated line of research has begun to exam dog-human and social robot-human interactions. Both dogs and robots are used as part of therapy and mental health interventions. His research uses experimental laboratory paradigms to understand processes that may underlie treatment. Kazdin’s work has been supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (Research Development, Research Career, MERIT, and R01 Awards) as well as by the William T. Grant Foundation, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Rivendell Foundation of America, the Humane Society of America, the Laura J. Niles Foundation, Leon Lowenstein Foundation, the Jack Parker Foundation, and Yale University. His 750+ publications include 49 books that focus on interventions for children and adolescents, cognitive-behavioral treatment, parenting and child rearing, interpersonal violence, and methodology and research design. His work on parenting and childrearing has been featured on National Public Radio (NPR), Public Broadcasting System (PBC), British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Cable News Network (CNN) and he has appeared on the Today Show, Good Morning America, American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), 20/20, and Dr. Phil. He frequently lectures to parents, school personnel, and employees in various business groups interested in learning the latest research and techniques of childrearing. He has received several professional awards. These include: the Outstanding Research Contribution by an Individual Award and Lifetime Achievement Awards (Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies), Outstanding Lifetime Contributions to Psychology Award and Distinguished Scientific Award for the Applications of Psychology (American Psychological Association), and the James McKeen Cattell Award (Association for Psychological Science). In 2008, he was president of the American Psychological Association.