An important change in ICD-11 is the lifespan approach, whereby previous child and adolescent disorders have been amalgamated with adult disorders. There have been changes in the definition/descriptions of neurodevelopmental and disruptive disorders, some of which may have an impact on service development.

The introduction of new legislation in 2006 brought about changes to the way citizenship applications were considered in the UK. Over the intervening years, several hundred children born in the UK have been denied British citizenship as a result of changes to the ‘good character’ requirement in the legislation – namely its extension to cover all those aged 10 years or older applying for citizenship, including individuals who were born in the UK. As a result of the formulaic way in which this requirement is assessed, citizenship can be denied on the basis of historical patterns of behaviour or offending from childhood. This article will consider whether the current approach to assessment of character in the context of applications for British citizenship is meaningful or appropriate, given developments in our understanding of normative psychological and neurological development and also the impact of psychosocial adversity, trauma, and broader psychopathological or neurodevelopmental conditions.

In the course of studies of behavioural parent training with the families of young children who were demonstrating serious conduct disorders, a substantial proportion of the parents reported, without the information being solicited in any way, that their children had become far more loving and demonstrative than formerly. They were surprised and delighted by this development. The concepts of “attachment” and “attachment behaviours” are explored and the usefulness of learning theory in understanding the extinction and recovery of attachment/attachment behaviours is discussed. This formulation may provide a bridge between cognitive learning theory on the one hand and attachment theory on the other.

This study aims to identify (1) a core disruptive behavior disorder (DBD) postulated to presage a substance use disorder, and (2) the relative importance of parental DBD phenotypes, and familial and nonfamilial environmental factors in the determination of DBD in male children. DBD symptom counts and measures of familial and nonfamilial environmentals were collected from intact families ascertained through the presence (SA+) or absence (SA−) of substance dependence in fathers. Multivariate analyses revealed that both behavioral symptoms and environmental measures were significant discriminators of the families. In SA+ families, the child's score DBD was best predicted by magnitudes of parental dyssocial behaviors and by familial environmental factors. However, in SA− families only familial environmental factors were significant predictors of the child's DBD. These findings suggest that in addition to independent actions of familial transmissible and nonfamilial factors, strong genotype-environment interactions may determine DBD in children and that may contribute to the liability for a substance use disorder.

Abbreviations: ADD: attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder; ASPD: antisocial personality disorder; CD: conduct disorder; DBD: disruptive behavior disorder; K-SADS-E; author to supply; NCI: Neighborhood Cohesion Index; ODD; oppositional defiant disorder; PSUD: psychoactive substance dependence disorder; SA: substance dependence (+=present, −=absent); SCID: Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R; SUD; substance use disorders.