Gender-specific criteria for deviance on parents' ratings of attention versus conduct problems were tested as predictors of interview-reported signs of disturbance in a national sample of 1,238 males and 1,241 females first assessed in 1986 at ages 4 through 16 years. Findings show that males and females who were deviant on both attention and conduct problems showed higher rates of several signs of disturbance than did those deviant on only one type of problem. Subjects deviant only on conduct problems showed higher rates of several signs than did controls; whereas, those deviant only on attention problems exceeded controls mainly on special education services. Unaggressive "delinquent" conduct problems predicted dropping out of school, unwed pregnancy, and total signs for both genders during transitions to adulthood. The authors conclude that attention problems predict receipt of special education services, but contribute much less than conduct problems to predicting other signs of disturbance. Differential assessment of aggressive versus unaggressive conduct problems can improve prediction, as can gender specificity in setting criteria for deviance and in testing outcomes. 3 tables and 23 references