Using prospective, longitudinal data from the Pittsburgh Youth Study (PYS), Boots
gauges the temporal impact of childhood and adolescent mental health problems on
the development of serious offending behaviors in boys. She converts data from both
parent and teacher reports of psychopathological problems to create DSM-oriented
scales for Oppositional Defiant, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity, Anxiety, and
Affective Problems. When compared to DSM diagnoses, these scales offer an innovative
and more continuous form of measurement with distinctions between normal, borderline,
and clinical levels of these mental health problems. Regression analyses across 24
models indicate that three different teacher-reported DSM-oriented mental health
problems emerged at three different stages of development as significant predictors
of serious violence over the lifecourse.

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