Treating emotional and behavioral disorders in children and adolescents is a complex issue; that is, practitioners must understand children’s typical patterns of social, emotional, and cognitive development and determine what is responsible for having taken the referred child off that “normal” path. Most children identified as socially maladjusted benefit from treatment and schooling provided in alternative education classes. Social maladjustment has historically also been synonymous with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) diagnoses of conduct disorder, antisocial personality disorder, and oppositional-defiant disorder. The diathesis-stress model is the balance between stressors and coping that accounts for the onset and continuation of mental health and other medical disorders. Three psychosocial intervention approaches are effective for all youth with conduct problems: parent training, contingency management, and cognitive behavioral skill training. As skills develop and stabilize, interpersonal intelligence and intrapersonal intelligence form emotional intelligence.