Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, Vol. 29, No. 6, December 2001, pp. 465–478 ( C  2001) Prevalence and Correlates of Antisocial Behaviors Among Three Ethnic Groups Hector R. Bird, 1,4 Glorisa J. Canino, 2 Mark Davies, 1 Haiying Zhang, 1 Rafael Ramirez, 2 and Benjamin B. Lahey 3 Received August 31, 2000; revision received March 12, 2001; accepted March 18, 2001 Using data from the MECA Study, this report examines the prevalence of Conduct Disorder (CD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), and various levels of antisocial behavior and their correlates among three ethnic groups: Hispanics, subdivided into Island Puerto Ricans and Mainland Hispanics; African Americans; and Mainland Non-Hispanic, Non-African Americans. Correlates considered include stressful life events, birth defects, low birth weight, learning difficulties, teen mothers, family environment, marital adjustment, social competence, parental monitoring, and family relationships. Logistic regression was used to determine the association of outcomes with individual correlates and of interaction terms with ethnicity. Differences between adjusted rates and observed rates of disorders and levels of antisocial behaviors are compared to estimate the extent to which each correlate explains the group differences in rates. Island Puerto Ricans had a lower prevalence of CD, ODD, and various levels of antisocial behavior than mainland Hispanics, African Americans, and non-Hispanic Whites. The lower prevalence appears to be associated with differences in the extent to which a number of these correlates are found on the island, the most salient being better family relations between the target children and their parents and siblings. KEY WORDS: antisocial; disruptive behavior disorders; cross-cultural; correlates. This report used the data from the MECA Study (Lahey et al., 1996) to carry out a cross-sectional examina- tion of the prevalence of Conduct Disorder (CD) and Op- positional Defiant Disorders (ODD), and of various levels of antisocial behavior among three ethnic groups, as well as the levels of association between each construct and a number of predictors of antisocial behavior. The MECA Study, carried out in four distinct community settings, was a multisite collaborative study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, whose aim was to test meth- ods for use in child psychiatric epidemiologic surveys. 1 Department of Psychiatry, N.Y. State Psychiatric Institute/Columbia University, New York, New York 10032. 2 Behavioral Sciences Research Institute, Medical Sciences Campus, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico 00936. 3 Department of Psychiatry, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637. 4 Address all correspondence to Hector R. Bird, N.Y. State Psychiatric Institute (Unit 78), 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, New York 10032; e-mail: hb11@columbia.edu. Because one of the study sites was in Puerto Rico, the MECA study included a large Hispanic subgroup, en- abling the investigators to place particular emphasis on the findings relevant to Puerto Rican children. The authors were specifically interested in assess- ing the prevalence and predictors of antisocial behaviors among Puerto Rican and other Hispanic children included in the MECA samples. Puerto Ricans presently comprise the second largest group of Hispanics in the United States (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990) and the most populous in the northeast. There are no extended longitudinal stud- ies that have traced and explained the development of an- tisocial behaviors from childhood to adolescence among Puerto Ricans or any other Hispanic group or that have examined the correlates and comorbidities of antisocial behaviors in these populations. Although the data from the present study are also cross-sectional and cannot address developmental issues, it provides the base for future lon- gitudinal investigations. The study of antisocial behaviors is an important topic of research in Hispanic minorities 465 0091-0627/01/1200-0465$19.50/0 C  2001 Plenum Publishing Corporation