To our knowledge this is the first study to present data on the world-wide prevalence of CD and ODD as a first step in evaluating the validity of these disorders in different cultures. Several other studies have reviewed the literature and presented rates of overall psychopathology in children across cultures [11, 14, 24, 66] but have not presented data on specific psychiatric disorders such as CD and ODD. Nevertheless, a recent study presented data on the prevalence rates of ADHD across cultures and showed that variability across studies regarding diagnostic criteria, source of information (whether parent, child or teacher), and requirement of impairment for diagnosis, accounted mostly for differences in prevalence rates [64]. No geographical difference between North America and Europe was observed. Given these previous results, we expect significant variability mainly related to methodological factors, in the prevalence of CD and ODD across cultures and ethnicity. However, we also expect significant heterogeneity in prevalence rates due to geographic or cultural variability, given the importance of contextual and environmental factors associated with ODD and CD.
