ChildhoodTraumatic Experience, Attachment Quality, and Parenting Styleas Predicting Factors of Psychopathic Behaviour

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate how childhoodtraumatic experiences, attachment qualities with parents and peers and perceived parenting style contribute to psychopathic behaviours among inmates. A sizeof 270 institutionalised participantsresponded to a questionnaire comprising items from the Levenson’s Self Report Psychopathy (LSRP, α = .83), Early Trauma Inventory Self-Report Short Form (Cronbach’s α = .89), Parenting Style Inventory-II (Cronbach’s α = .75),and Inventory of Parent and Peers Attachments (Cronbach’s α = .83).The results showed that early childhood experiences of sexual abuse showed significant prediction of psychopathy[β =.24, t = 2.63, p <.05].Alienation in attachment quality significantlypredicted psychopathy[β = -.19, t = 3.01, p < .01]. Similarly, parenting style autonomy-grantingsignificantly predicted psychopathy [β = .25, t = 3.64, p < .01]. The study concludes that the experience of childhood trauma, the quality of attachment and parenting style could have implication for psychopathic behaviour pattern