SynthesisJournal of abnormal child psychology2014
Do childhood externalizing disorders predict adult depression? A meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Journal of abnormal child psychology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 39 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
39 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 103 citations in OpenAlex.
- Genetic Associations Between Childhood Psychopathology and Adult Depression and Associated Traits in 42 998 Individuals: A Meta-analysis.JAMA psychiatry · 2020Pooled it
- Externalizing Behavior Problems in Offspring of Teen Mothers: A Meta-Analysis.Journal of youth and adolescence · 2020Pooled it
- Evidence Base Update on the Assessment of Irritability, Anger, and Aggression in Youth.Journal of clinical child and adolescent psychology : the official journal for the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, American Psychological Association, Division 53Pooled it
- The Impact of Maternal Emotion Talk on an Early Intervention for Infants with Elevated Levels of Behavior Problems.Child psychiatry and human development · 2026Article
- Time-dependent association between prenatal hair glucocorticoid levels and child behavior problems.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2026Article
- Reimagining the Biopsychosocial Model: Transdiagnostic Factors to Precision Psychiatry.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Article
- The development and course of youth psychopathology: a longitudinal study of prevalence and continuity from early childhood through late adolescence.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2026Article
- Mental health trajectory groups: Family income, neighborhood disadvantage, and role of the school environment.Journal of research on adolescence : the official journal of the Society for Research on Adolescence · 2026Article
- ABA-based teacher training reduces emotional and behavioral problems in Brazilian children.Psicologia, reflexao e critica : revista semestral do Departamento de Psicologia da UFRGS · 2026Article
- Teacher-student relationship quality and social, academic, and behavioral adjustment are associated within and between persons from kindergarten to grade 6.Developmental psychology · 2026Article
- Childhood psychological abuse influences adolescent aggression through mentalizing and alexithymia sequential mediation.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Longitudinal Changes in Preschoolers' Self-reported Psychological and Social Problems: Feasibility, Reliability, and Cross-informant Agreement.Child psychiatry and human development · 2025Article
- Psychiatric symptoms at age 8 as predictors of specialized health service use for psychiatric disorders in late adolescence and early adulthood: findings from the Finnish Nationwide 1981 Birth Cohort Study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Child Effortful Control as a Moderator of the Effects of Parenting on Children's Behavioral Adjustment: A Longitudinal Study Spanning 3 to 10 Years.Child psychiatry and human development · 2024Article
- Right frontal cingulate cortex mediates the effect of prenatal complications on youth internalizing behaviors.Molecular psychiatry · 2024Article
- Anxiety and Depression from Childhood to Young Adulthood: Trajectories and Risk Factors.Child psychiatry and human development · 2024Article
- A social-development model of the evolution of depressive symptoms from age 13 to 30.Development and psychopathology · 2024Article
- Internalizing disorders rather than ADHD are risk factors for chronicity in pediatric migraine patients.Turkish journal of medical sciences · 2024Article
- Caregiver adverse childhood experiences and preschool externalizing problems: The role of factors that contribute to caregiver resilience.Child abuse & neglect · 2024Article
- Gene-by-Environment Interaction Effects of Social Adversity on Externalizing Behavior in ABCD Youth.Behavior genetics · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Childhood externalizing disorders have been linked to adult affective disorders, although some studies fail to substantiate this finding. Multiple longitudinal cohort studies identifying childhood psychopathology and their association with adult psychiatric illness have been published. To examine the association between childhood externalizing symptoms or disorders and the development of adult depression across cohorts, a meta-analysis was performed. Potential studies were identified using a PubMed search through November 2013. All published, prospective, longitudinal, community-sampled cohort studies of children (≤ 13 years) with externalizing symptoms or disorders (aggression, conduct problems, oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder), reassessed in adulthood (≥ 18 years) for depressive disorders (major depressive disorder, depressive disorder NOS, or dysthymic disorder) were included. A random effects model was used to summarize the pooled effect sizes. Ancillary analyses considered covariates that could account for variance among studies. Ten studies representing eight cohorts of children initially assessed at age 13 or younger (N = 17,712) were included in the meta-analysis. Childhood externalizing behavior was associated with adult depressive disorders (OR = 1.52, 95% confidence interval = 1.27-1.80, p < 0.0001). Utilizing Orwin's Fail-safe N approach, 263 studies with a mean odds ratio of 1.0 would have to be added to the analysis before the cumulative effect would become trivial. Externalizing psychopathology in childhood is associated with the development of unipolar depressive disorders in adulthood.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.