Emerging control and disruptive behavior disorders during early childhood.

The current study evaluates associations between control processes and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) during early childhood. Participants were 98 children between ages 3 and 6 and their primary caregivers. Diagnostic information on ODD and ADHD symptoms was available from parents and teachers/caregivers via standardized rating forms. Affective, effortful, and cognitive control processes were measured using parent and examiner ratings via standardized questionnaires, observational ratings, and child performance on laboratory tasks of cognitive control. Affective control, but not effortful control, was significantly associated with cognitive control. A latent factor of control was significantly associated with ADHD, but not ODD, symptoms.