Recent developments in the conceptualization of externalizing spectrum disorders, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, conduct disorder, antisocial personality disorder, and
substance use disorders, suggest common genetic and neural substrates. Despite this, neither shared vulnerabilities nor their implications for developmental models of externalizing conduct are
captured by prevailing nosologic and diagnostic systems, such as theDSM-5.
The Oxford Handbook of Externalizing Spectrum Disorders is the first book of its kind to capture the developmental psychopathology of externalizing spectrum disorders by examining
causal factors across levels of analysis and developmental epochs, while departing from the categorical perspective. World renowned experts on externalizing psychopathology demonstrate how
shared genetic and neural vulnerabilities predispose to trait impulsivity, a highly heritable personality construct that is often shaped by adverse environments into increasingly intractable
forms of externalizing conduct across development. Consistent with contemporary models of almost all forms of psychopathology, theHandbook emphasizes the importance of neurobiological
vulnerability and environmental risk interactions in the expression of externalizing behavior across the lifespan. The volume concludes with an integrative, ontogenic process model of
externalizing psychopathology in which diverse equifinal and multifinal pathways to disorder are specified.
