Describe the most common social and emotional problems of middle childhood.

Conduct disorder, depression, and separation anxiety are serious childhood conditions that can impair social and emotional functioning. Children with conduct disorders break rules and violate the rights of others. These children may also engage in truancy and cruelty to animals. Conduct disorder shows stability across time. Children with this disorder are more likely to develop substance abuse problems and to display antisocial behavior as adults. New cognitivebehavioral techniques are showing some promise in reducing conduct disorder. Childhood depression affects an estimated 5 to 9% of children in any given year. Situational stressors, such as family problems, appear to contribute dramatically to depression in middle childhood. The most common anxiety disorder of middle childhood is separation anxiety disorder (SAD). The typical manifestation of this disorder is school phobia. Although some incidents of school phobia are related to problems at school or difficulty with classmates, more often than not these incidents have to do with stressful life changes.