Income gradients within child and adolescent antisocial behaviours.

<bold>Background: </bold>Low income is a widely studied risk factor for child and adolescent behavioural difficulties. Previous research on this relationship has produced mixed findings.<bold>Aims: </bold>To investigate the level, shape and homogeneity of income gradients in different types of antisocial behaviour.<bold>Method: </bold>A representative sample of 7977 British children and adolescents, aged 5-16 years, was analysed. Hypotheses concerning the shapes and homogeneity of the relationships between family socioeconomic status and multiple antisocial behaviour outcomes, including clinical diagnoses of oppositional-defiant disorder, conduct disorder and symptom subscales, such as irritability and hurtfulness, were tested by structural equation models.<bold>Results: </bold>Consistent income gradients were demonstrated across all antisocial behaviours studied. Disorder prevalence and mean symptom counts decreased across income quintiles in a non-linear fashion.<bold>Conclusions: </bold>Our findings emphasise that income gradients are similar across different forms of antisocial behaviour and indicate that income may lead to greater behavioural differences in the mid-income range and less variation at low- and high-income extremes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]