Second, our findings suggest that conduct problems in childhood, regardless of whether they persist, signal future service usage across a wide range of sectors, including criminal justice, health care, and social services. For the multiple systems that encounter and can identify children with conduct problems, including the criminal justice system (with early behavioral referrals), pediatric clinics (with annual visits and observations), and educational settings (with parent and teacher reports like those used in this study), these findings suggest an early window of opportunity to prevent future health-related problems and, potentially, reduce costs associated with future service usage.
