Individual and family characteristics associated with the persistence of disruptive behavior disorders in children. This study identifies characteristics, measured at study entry, that differentiate between children engaging in persisting or in decreasing trajectories of behavior disorder and verifies the moderating effect of gender. The sample consists of 268 elementary school-age children (28% of girls; M=9.8 years, s.d.=1.79) receiving services for behavioral problems at school. According to the latent growth class analysis (six years), 12.3% of children (24% of females) belonged to the persisting trajectory and 32.5% (30% of female) belonged to the descending trajectory. Although children in both trajectories had similar vulnerabilities at study entry, multivariate regression analyzes identified some differentiating characteristics: a temperament characterized by a high sensory threshold increases the probability of belonging to the persistent trajectory among girls; the presence of an anxiety disorder and the absence of a depressive disorder in the parents was associated with membership in the persistent trajectory. These findings support targeting difficulties of parents to prevent the persistence of behavioral problems.