Malgré les travaux théoriques mettant en relation les troubles des conduites (TC) avec les difficultés de régulation émotionnelle, peu de recherches expérimentales ont exploré les liens entre ces deux variables. Cette étude visait à étudier les liens entre TC et régulation émotionnelle chez 75 adolescents : 30 adolescents avec TC et 45 témoins, âgés de 13 à 18ans. La régulation émotionnelle a été mesurée à l’aide de deux auto-questionnaires : la TAS-20 (questionnaire d’alexithymie de Toronto), considérée comme le gold standard pour mesurer l’alexithymie, et la DERS (Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale), une échelle de régulation émotionnelle récemment validée. Les résultats ont mis en évidence que les témoins et les adolescents avec TC présentaient des scores de régulation émotionnelle significativement différents. De plus, les corrélations ont montré que, plus les difficultés de régulation émotionnelle étaient importantes, plus les TC étaient sévères. Enfin, d’après les analyses discriminantes, les deux outils utilisés pour décrire les modalités de régulation émotionnelle se sont révélés efficaces pour prédire l’appartenance d’un participant au groupe TC ou au groupe témoin de manière significative. Les résultats vont dans le sens des travaux ayant souligné le lien théorique entre un défaut de mentalisation (i.e. accès et compréhension des états internes) et le passage à l’acte. Ils encouragent le développement de programmes thérapeutiques centrés sur la régulation émotionnelle à l’attention d’adolescents avec TC.

Although many authors have highlighted similarities between conduct disorder (CD) and alexithymia, little empirical research has actually investigated the contribution of emotion processing to CD. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between CD and scores on affect regulation scales among 75 adolescents: a group of 30 adolescents with CD and a group of 45 controls, ranging in age from 13 to 18.

All participants filled in a socio-demographic questionnaire. CD diagnosis was assessed in regard to DSM-IV criteria using the specific CD section of the Kiddie-Sads. Affect regulation was measured with two self-reports: TAS-20 (Toronto Alexithymia Scale), known as the gold standard for alexithymia measurement, and DERS (Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale), a recently validated scale. In addition, since depression may influence the correlations between CD and alexithymia, it was also measured with the BDI. In order to have more information on the CD group, the CTQ was also used. One way analyses of variance adjusting for age were used for mean score comparisons. Partial correlations adjusting for age were used to investigate the link between the CD severity (the severity index was calculated from the Kiddie-Sads) and affect regulation scores. Finally, discriminant analyses were conducted to explore whether affect regulation could correctly categorize controls and adolescents with CD.

These results provided some additional data in order to understand the relationship between affect regulation and CD. Controls and adolescents with CD had significantly different emotion regulation scales scores at both scales (TAS-20 and DERS) and in most of their dimensions. Moreover, they also point out the positive correlation between difficulties in affect regulation and CD severity. To our knowledge, this is the first study to have investigated relationships between CD and alexithymia using a severity index of CD. Finally, discriminant analyses showed that the two emotion regulation scales permitted the significant discrimination of both groups. These results are consistent with previous works highlighting the theoretical relationship between deficit in mental elaboration and acting-out. They point to the need to develop therapeutic programs in order to improve emotion regulation of teenagers with CD. Finally, an additional analysis showed a relationship between emotional neglect in childhood (measured with CTQ) and the CD severity. A task for future research would be to study the relationships between attachment, emotional regulation and CD in adolescence.