The development of girls? disruptive behavior and the transmission to the next generation

This thesis examined girls__ disruptive behavior using both a community sample of young girls and a high-risk sample of previously detained adolescent females. This thesis demonstrates that girls__ disruptive behavior has far-reaching consequences for themselves and the generation to come. Findings indicate that disruptive girls often continue their deviant behavior after childhood and that a proportion develops multiple coexisting adjustment problems through adolescence and adulthood. These adversities strongly interfere with girls__ normative development as for example shown by their poor academic achievement, substance use, and multiple mental health problems. This thesis further shows that when disruptive girls become mothers, their children are exposed to their various detrimental circumstances. Consequently, these children are at higher risk to also develop disruptive behavior. Prevention and intervention programs at an early age could have important consequences for both the concurrent and later wellbeing of disruptive girls and their children. In this thesis we suggest ways how such programs might be able to break the cycle of adversity and produce better life outcomes for disruptive girls and the next generation of children.