Clinical Handbook of Assessing and Treating Conduct Problems in Youth

Conduct problems, particularly oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD), are the most common mental health problems affecting children and adolescents. The consequences to individuals, families, and schools may be severe and long-lasting. To ameliorate negative outcomes and ensure the most effective treatment for aggressive and antisocial youth, early diagnosis and evidence-based interventions are essential.

Clinical Handbook of Assessing and Treating Conduct Problems in Youth provides readers with both a solid grounding in theory and a comprehensive examination of the evidence-based assessment strategies and therapeutic practices that can be used to treat a highly diverse population with a wide range of conduct problems. It provides professional readers with an array of evidence-based interventions, both universal and targeted, that can be implemented to improve behavioral and social outcomes in children and adolescents.

This expertly written resource:

• Lays the foundation for understanding conduct problems in youth, including epidemiology, etiology, and biological, familial, and contextual risk factors.
• Details the assessment process, with in-depth attention to tools, strategies, and differential diagnosis.
• Reviews nine major treatment protocols, including Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), multisystemic therapy (MST) for adolescents, school-based group approaches, residential treatment, and pharmacotherapy.
• Critiques the current generation of prevention programs for at-risk youth.
• Explores salient issues in working effectively with minority youth.
• Offers methods for evaluating intervention programs, starting with cost analysis.

This volume serves as a one-stop reference for all professionals who seek a solid grounding in theory as well as those who need access to evidence-based assessment and therapies for conduct problems. It is a must-have volume for anyone working with at-risk children, including clinical child, school, and developmental psychologists; forensic psychologists; social workers; school counselors and allied professionals; and medical and psychiatric practitioners.

From the reviews:

"Overall, the combination of the traditional subjects, updated and enriched by clinically vivid portraits of the topics, with a healthy infusion of fresh, innovative material, makes this book for now the preferred reference on this topic for practicing clinical psychologists."

Joseph C. Blader
PsycCRITIQUES, July 6, 2011, Vol. 56, Release 27, Article 9

“This book provides a comprehensive overview of what is currently known about child and adolescent behaviour problems. … it’s an easy-to-read resource for both researchers and clinicians who wish to develop a solid theoretical understanding of these problems. It also details practical, evidence-based assessment and intervention options that can be applied across a range of settings and is tailored to meet individual needs, such as parent management strategies, family therapy and cognitive behaviour therapy.” (Danielle Ellis, UTS News Room, November, 2012)

Rachael C. Murrihy, PsyD. Dr. Murrihy is currently Senior Clinical Psychologist and Research Associate at the Health Psychology Unit, an adolescent-focused unit, at the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia. Dr Murrihy’s specialty is in the area of clinical adolescent psychology. She has extensive experience lecturing, training, and supervising professionals in this field, including clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, family physicians, nurses, educators, and interns. She also provides mental health lectures for members of the general public. As a practicing clinician, Dr Murrihy works with youth experiencing both internalizing and externalizing disorders across a diverse range of settings, including the university clinic, private practice, inpatient wards, and in mainstream and alternative schools. She has published research on adolescent mental health and has presented this work at conferences, both nationally and internationally. She has held research grants from the Australian Psychological Society, New South Wales (NSW) Department of Health, and the NSW Department of Education and Training. Her research and clinical interests include the assessment and treatment of youth with conduct problems, callous-unemotional traits in youth, cyber bullying and indirect bullying, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for early psychosis.

Antony D. Kidman, PhD. Dr. Kidman is a Clinical Psychologist and Director of the Health Psychology Unit of the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia. He has more than 140 scholarly publications to his name including seven books: Tactics for Change; Managing Love and Hate; Family Life, Adapting to Change; Feeling Better, a Guide to Mood Management; From Thought to Action; Stress, Coping and Social Support in the Age of Anxiety, and Schizophrenia, a Guide for Families. Dr Kidman was a member of the National Executive of the Australian college of clinical psychologists for 10 years and was the founder and inaugural Editor for 6 years of the College’s journal, The Clinical Psychologist. He is a Member of the Clinical College of the Australian Psychological Society, an Associate Fellow of the Albert Ellis Institute of Rational Emotive Therapy (NY) and a Fellow of the International Academy of Cognitive Therapy. He has held research grants from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council and the New South Wales Department of Health. Dr Kidman has had a long-term clinical and research interest in adolescent mental health including anxiety, depression and psychosis. He is a frequent guest speaker on radio and television and writes for the media on mental health. He was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2005 for his contributions to clinical psychology.

Thomas H. Ollendick, PhD. Dr. Ollendick is University Distinguished Professor in Clinical Psychology and Director of the Child Study Center at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA. He is the author of several research articles, book chapters, and books. His books include Clinical Behavior Therapy with Children (Plenum Press), Child Behavioral Assessment: Principles and Procedures (Pergamon Press), Handbook of Child Psychopathology (Plenum Press), Developmental Issues in the Clinical Treatment of Children (Allyn and Bacon) (Oxford), and the Handbook of Interventions that Work with Children and Adolescents (Wiley). He is the past Editor of the Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, past Associate Editor of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, current Editor of Behavior Therapy, and founding Co-Editor of Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review. In addition, he is Past-President of the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy (1995), the Society of Clinical Psychology (1999), the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology (2003), and is currently President of the Society for the Science of Clinical Psychology. A frequent speaker at national and international conferences, he is the recipient of several NIH grants. His clinical and research interests range from the study of diverse forms of child psychopathology to the assessment, treatment, and prevention of these child disorders from a social learning/social cognitive theory perspective.