SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Human Developmental Psychology
This article is part of the Research TopicAssessment and Intervention for Children and Adolescents Affected by Neurodevelopmental DisordersView all 7 articles
Prevalence, Comorbidity, and Demographic Patterns of Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Conduct Disorder in Chinese Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review
Provisionally accepted
- 1Beijing Normal University Institute of Developmental Psychology, Beijing, China
- 2University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada
- 3Queen Alexandra Centre for Children's Health, Vancouver, Canada
- 4King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
- 5Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
- 6Beijing Normal University Department of Psychology, Beijing, China
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The prevalence of major disruptive behavior disorders such as oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD) has not been fully described in Chinese youth and their respective patterns are understudied as well. This systematic review was conducted to explore prevalence rates, comorbidity, and demographic characteristics of ODD and CD in Chinese children and adolescents. A thorough search of international databases revealed 19 (nineteen) peer-reviewed studies published in English between 2016 and 2025 that were pertinent and fulfilled the eligibility standards. The findings indicate that the prevalence rates of ODD and CD in Chinese were mostly lower than global rates, yet there was comorbidity with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and depressive symptoms. In several studies, it was noted those boys had higher rates of disruptive behaviors compared with girls, and urban-urban differences played a role in diagnosis rates. Parenting practices, peer rejection, and family conflict were identified as predictive of symptom persistence through longitudinal studies and deficiency in executive functioning and emotional regulation were identified in neurocognitive research as the definitive interpersonal pathways. The use of advanced analytic methods, such as structural equation modelling and cross-lagged designs, provided increased strength to causal inferences, but comparability was restricted by methodological heterogeneity. The prevalence of cross-sectional studies and the dependence on parent/teacher reports limited conclusions. Future studies are encouraged to utilize culturally-adapted diagnostic measures, longitudinal designs, and interventional measures. The results indicate the relevance of culturally responsive prevention and treatment interventions with focus on Chinese educational and family contexts.
Keywords: Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Conduct Disorder, Children, adolescents, China, Prevalence
Received: 24 Aug 2025; Accepted: 08 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Shah, Taneja, Altalha, Alharbi and Lin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
S Mudasser Shah
Fatimah Sayer Alharbi
Xiuyun Lin
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