Prevalence of Conduct Disorder among Children with Mild Intellectual Disabilities in South-West, Nigeria

Children with mild intellectual disability exhibit various forms of behavioural disorders, among which is conduct disorder. Conduct disorder is characterised by a pattern of behaviour that violates the basic right of others, norms, values and the rules of the community. The consequences of conduct disorder if not controlled among children with mild intellectual disability include truancy, thuggery, rape, abuse of drugs and such individuals become grossly unemployable leading to a life of total dependency. Factors responsible for the exhibition of conduct disorder among this group of children include the influence of both psychological and environmental factors. Previous studies indicated that behavioural disorders such as conduct disorder among children with intellectual disability is estimated to be higher than in the general population and it accounts for 30% to 50% children and adolescents psychiatric cases. The samples used in this study are eighty-four pupils from twelve special schools within South-West, Nigeria. The Slooson’s Intelligence Test and Conduct Disorder Rating Scale Teacher’s Version (CDRS-T) were used for data gathering with a value of 0.76 and 0.95 respectively. T-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used for the analysis. This study revealed that children with mild intellectual disability in South- West, Nigeria exhibit conduct disorder and that conduct disorder is more common among children with mild intellectual disability who reside in Lagos state with a mean of (64.88) than children with mild intellectual disability from Ekiti, Ogun, Osun, Ondo and Oyo states. However, children with mild intellectual disability from Oyo state had the least prevalence rate of conduct disorder(x=27.41). Additionally, the prevalence of conduct disorder is higher in boys with intellectual disability (x= 40.02) than girls (x=37.42).