The Preliminary Study of the Relationship Between Emotion Regulation Difficulties, Callous-Unemotional Traits and the Emergence of Oppositional Defiant Disorder in Outpatient Adolescents

Previous researchhasdemonstratedthatoppositionaldefiant is a strongpredictorofmental illness that cause significant distress for adolescents whomanifest the disorder and pose remarkable costs for society.

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of callous-unemotional traits and emotion regulation difficulties in pre- dicting oppositional defiant disorder.

This is a descriptive-correlative study performed on a sample of 320 male high school students, chosen via multi-stage random sampling. Instruments used to collect data are inclusive of oppositional defiant behavior inventory (ODBI), diffi- culties in emotion regulation strategies scale (DERS) and inventory of callous-unemotional traits (ICU).

The results suggest a significant relationship between oppositional defiant behavior, impulse control difficulties and callous- ness. Regression analysis revealed that 16% variance of oppositional defiant behavior can be explained by impulse control difficulties and callousness.

Our findings highlight the importance of callousness and impulse control difficulties in development of oppositional defiantdisorder. Moving forward, clinicians should consider the importance of these variables intheir future researchto identifymech- anismthrough which callousness and impulse control difficulties enhances risk of oppositional defiant disorder