This study assesses Conduct Disorder in Former USSR immigrant adolescents compared with native-born Israeli adolescents. Immigrant adolescents from the Former USSR face the complex task of forming their identity while having to adjust to a new culture. Meanwhile, studies have shown that their parents tend to use control and harsh punishment in their parenting methods. These adolescents are thus at greater risk of psychological distress and more prone to identify with socially deviant peer-groups, resulting in the dramatic increase in crime level found among them.

97 adolescents living in residential children's home, including 47 Former USSR immigrants and 50 native Israelis, completed questionnaires assessing level of hostility and sense of guilt (BDHI), ego identity (EIS), and parenting style (GPBS). Objective assessments of Conduct Disorder were obtained by the instructors at the residential children's home using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL).

Immigrant adolescents showed higher levels of fused ego identity, and reported more negative and punishing parenting styles (linked to Conduct Disorder), compared with native adolescents. Hierarchic regressions for predicting Conduct Disorder revealed that diffused ego identity has the greatest effect on behavioral disorders, while immigration variables and parenting style have an enhancing effect on levels of behavioral disorder among youths with diffused ego identity.

The high levels of identity fusion among immigrant adolescents, resulting in higher levels of Conduct Disorder, warrant ethnic-sensitive interventions.