Disruptive Behavior Disorders (DBDs), including Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Conduct Disorder, are serious mental problems associated with a host of social, emotional, and behavioral problems, both current and later emerging, with high costs for the community. The symposium includes presentations regarding the Coping Power Program for reducing externalizing behavioral problems in children with DBDs diagnosis, the implementation process of the Coping Power Program in Italian community hospitals, the clinical characteristics associated with the presence of DBDs diagnosis and elevated levels of Callous Unemotional (lack of guilt, callous-lack of empathy, lack of concern about performance, and specific deficits in the processing of emotional stimuli) traits, and the adaptation of the Coping Power Program as a Universal prevention program. The first and the second presentations introduce the Coping Power Program model; show the program’s ability to reduce externalizing behavioral problems and they also indicate that the insecure attachment styles of therapists predict unfavorable outcomes for children treated with the Coping Power Program. The third presentation regards emotional processing in children with DBDs diagnosis. The emotional processing was examined with the aid of an SMI RED 500, a remote eye tracking system, which allowed us to record children’s eye movements and analyze how they explored visual emotional stimuli. Clinical samples of each study included 20 DBD children, and a typically development control sample; the results indicate that elevated levels of Callous Unemotional traits in DBD children are associated with impairment in emotional processing. The fourth presentation regards the adaptation of the Coping Power Program as a universal prevention intervention in Italian primary and nursery schools. Globally the results from 5 randomized control trials show the program’s ability to reduce the externalizing behavioral problems in primary and nursery school children. 

Prof. Muratori is psychologist, cognitive behavioral psychotherapist. He is Adjunct Professor of Developmental Psychology at University of Pisa, Italy. He is official trainer for the coping power program. He works in an outpatient clinic for children and adolescent with disruptive behaviour disorder diagnosis. His main research activities include the investigation of clinical profiles in children and adolescent with disruptive behaviour disorder, efficacy of treatment and prevention intervention models for externalizing behavioural problems, primary prevention of childhood aggression, and moral developmental in adolescents.