Given changing measurement across time, we are unable to be completely certain that differences across time were reflective of actual change, and we therefore present our descriptions of the trajectories with caution. Nevertheless, we feel the externalizing profiles in the present study reflected meaningful individual differences in the development of externalizing problems, and the predictors of these problems were meaningful, as well. Heterotypic continuity is a developmental complexity that arises in many different domains, and we feel that seeking to understand and predict changes across important developmental periods is better than ignoring the phenotypic complexities associated with meaningful developmental change.
