Pittsburgh Youth Study Research Articles

Childhood Explanatory Factors for Adolescent Offending: a Cross-national Comparison Based on Official Records in London, Pittsburgh, and Zurich

This study compares childhood explanatory factors for adolescent offending according to official records obtained in three longitudinal projects conducted in three different countries: the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development, the Pittsburgh Youth Study, and the Zurich Project on the Social Development from Childhood to Adulthood. This is the first comparison of a great variety of explanatory factors for recorded offending measured in three different geographic areas and different generations. Several common explanatory factors were found in the three projects, and they seem to be generalizable across time and context. Common explanatory factors for offending included individual factors such as high impulsivity, attention deficit, and low school achievement. Childrearing explanatory factors included poor supervision, physical discipline, and parental conflict. Socioeconomic explanatory factors included low family income and divorced parents. Parental imprisonment was also a common risk factor among the three studies. Replicable childhood predictors of youth offending should be targeted in prevention.

Cohort Profile: the Pittsburgh Youth Study (PYS)

Cohort Profile: the Pittsburgh Youth Study (PYS)

Criminal career duration: Predictability from self-reports and official records.

Criminal career duration has not been well investigated. There are very few longitudinal data sets that last long enough and enough subjects to investigate criminal career duration, and especially the characteristics and risk profiles of especially life course persistent offenders. The aim of the study was to describe the predictability of criminal career duration based on both official records and self-reports of offending, and to put the results in the context of the Moffitt theory of "adolescent limited" and "life course persistent" offenders. The Pittsburgh Youth Study (n = 1517) is a seminal longitudinal study based on a community sample of high-risk boys from the city of Pittsburgh. Data was used from the oldest sample of boys in the PYS (N = 506). The participants were first assessed on average at age 12, and data was used up until age 36 for self-reported offending, and age 40 for police charges. The analyses were conducted on moderate and serious violence and moderate and serious theft. Career duration was based on self-reports and official charges in combination. The results show the extent to which commonly accepted and well validated risk factors predict criminal career duration with a special focus on individuals showing high rate/persistent offending in adolescence. Results show more pathways of delinquent development than have previously been described by Moffitt, (Psychological Review, 1993, 100(4), 674-701). Results also show that there is limited predictability of delinquency and offending over time. In addition, results show that only a small number of risk factors distinguish high and low rate adolescent offenders who become continuous offenders. Examples are peer factors. Implications for policy making and intervention science are discussed.

The relationship between resting heart rate and aggression in males is racially variant.

Although resting heart rate is thought to be a generalizable risk factor for aggression, very little research has examined whether this relationship varies by race. We addressed this limitation using longitudinal data from the Pittsburgh Youth Study. Current data are from 197 men who participated in a teenage biosocial study (mean age = 15.7 years) and adult follow-up study (mean age = 32.1 years). Teenage resting heart rate interacted with race to predict teenage and adult aggression. The relationship between heart rate and aggression was significant in White, but not in Black males. To our knowledge, this is the first study to find that the relationship between resting heart rate and aggression is racially variant, suggesting that resting heart rate may not be a generalizable biomarker for conduct problems. At an intervention-level, findings could contribute to the development of more accurate risk assessment tools that take into account racial variance in risk factors.

Developmental trajectories of interpersonal callousness from childhood to adolescence as predictors of antisocial behavior and psychopathic features in young adulthood.

Although previous research has established a link between early interpersonal callousness (IC) from childhood to adolescence and later antisocial behavior and psychopathic features, the majority of these studies assess more proximal outcomes (e.g., assessed in adolescence). Thus, it is unclear whether youth with early-onset chronic levels of IC will continue to have negative outcomes into adulthood (i.e., roughly 14 years after IC was assessed). The current study used data from the youngest cohort (N = 503) of the Pittsburgh Youth Study to examine how latent classes of youth with different developmental patterns of IC across a 7-year period (∼ages 8 to 15) differed in their official records of juvenile (∼ages 16-17) and young adult (∼ages 18-31) offending, as well as self-reported psychopathic features and aggression in young adulthood (∼age 29). Results indicated that after adjusting for race, early offending, and externalizing behaviors in adolescence, youth with an early-onset chronic pattern of IC had substantially elevated risk for a serious and persistent pattern of offending, particularly violent offending. However, once these covariates were included, IC class no longer significantly predicted psychopathic features in adulthood. Thus, it is possible that the stability from early patterns of IC to adult psychopathic features may have previously been overstated. Future work could examine whether interventions to reduce IC in childhood and adolescence could successfully result in improved outcomes into adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Associations between adolescent cannabis use frequency and adult brain structure: A prospective study of boys followed to adulthood

BackgroundFew studies have tested the hypothesis that adolescent cannabis users show structural brain alterations in adulthood. The present study tested associations between prospectively-assessed trajectories of adolescent cannabis use and adult brain structure in a sample of boys followed to adulthood. MethodsData came from the Pittsburgh Youth Study – a longitudinal study of ˜1000 boys. Boys completed self-reports of cannabis use annually from age 13–19, and latent class growth analysis was used to identify different trajectories of adolescent cannabis use. Once adolescent cannabis trajectories were identified, boys were classified into their most likely cannabis trajectory. A subset of boys (n = 181) subsequently underwent structural neuroimaging in adulthood, when they were between 30–36 years old on average. For this subset, we grouped participants according to their classified adolescent cannabis trajectory and tested whether these groups showed differences in adult brain structure in 14 a priori regions of interest, including six subcortical (volume only: amygdala, hippocampus, nucleus accumbens, caudate, putamen, and pallidum) and eight cortical regions (volume and thickness: superior frontal gyrus; caudal and rostral middle frontal gyrus; inferior frontal gyrus, separated into pars opercularis, pars triangularis, and pars orbitalis; lateral and medial orbitofrontal gyrus). ResultsWe identified four adolescent cannabis trajectories: non-users/infrequent users, desisters, escalators, and chronic-relatively frequent users. Boys in different trajectory subgroups did not differ on adult brain structure in any subcortical or cortical region of interest. ConclusionsAdolescent cannabis use is not associated with structural brain differences in adulthood.

Prospective Associations of Adolescent Conscientiousness With Psychological Resources and Metabolic Syndrome in Black and White Men.

Conscientiousness predicts better psychological resources as well as lower cardiovascular mortality and lower metabolic syndrome (MetS) risk. However, the benefits of conscientiousness might be amplified, disabled, or reversed in disadvantaged groups. This study is the first to test these competing hypotheses for prospective associations between adolescent conscientiousness and adult psychological resources and MetS. Participants were 220 men (54.6% black) from the Pittsburgh Youth Study. Adolescent conscientiousness (M [SD] age = 16 [1]) was rated by participants and their parents. Adult (M [SD] age = 32 [1]) socioeconomic status (SES; occupation and education), psychological resources (composite of positive affect, purpose in life, optimism, self-mastery, and self-esteem), and MetS scores (glucose, lipids, waist circumference, and blood pressure) were measured. Hierarchical regressions were used to evaluate the association of conscientiousness with adult psychological resources and MetS scores, with testing of moderation by race and SES. Self- and parent-reported conscientiousness were associated with better psychological resources (βs = 0.23-0.29, ps ≤ .015), with no moderation by race or socioeconomic status. In the full sample, a three-way interaction of self-reported conscientiousness, race, and SES was obtained for MetS (β = 0.12, p = .093). Subgroup analysis indicated that self-reported conscientiousness was related to higher MetS scores in low SES black men (βint = -0.22, p = .022), but there was no comparable linear (βs ≤ 0.08, ps ≥ .50) or interaction (βs ≤ -0.13 ps ≥ .25) pattern in white men. Adolescent conscientiousness was beneficial for adult psychological resources, regardless of race or SES. However, there may be physiological costs of conscientiousness for black men from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Associations Between Cannabis Use and Cardiometabolic Risk Factors: A Longitudinal Study of Men.

This study tested longitudinal associations between cannabis use and cardiometabolic risk factors that underlie the development of cardiovascular diseases. Participants were men from the youngest cohort of the Pittsburgh Youth Study who were followed prospectively from approximately age 7 to 32 years (N = 253). Frequency of cannabis use was assessed yearly from approximately ages 12 to 20 years and again at approximately ages 26, 29, and 32 years. The following cardiometabolic risk factors were assessed during a laboratory visit at approximately age 32 years: body mass index (BMI), waist-hip ratio, high- and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, fasting glucose, insulin resistance, blood pressure, interleukin 6, and C-reactive protein. Greater cannabis exposure was associated with relatively lower BMI (β = -0.31, p < .001), smaller waist-hip ratio (β = -0.23, p = .002), better high- (β = 0.14, p = .036) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (β = -0.15, p = .026), lower triglycerides (β = -0.17, p = .009), lower fasting glucose (β = -0.15, p < .001) and insulin resistance (β = -0.21, p = .003), lower systolic (β = -0.22, p < .001) and diastolic blood pressure (β = -0.15, p = .028), and fewer metabolic syndrome criteria (β = -0.27, p < .001). With exception of BMI, cannabis users' mean levels on cardiometabolic risk factors were generally below clinical cutoffs for high risk. Most associations between cannabis use and cardiometabolic risk factors remained after adjusting for tobacco use, childhood socioeconomic status, and childhood health. However, after adjusting for adult BMI, these associations were no longer apparent, and mediation tests suggested that cannabis users' relatively lower BMI might explain their lower levels of risk on other cardiometabolic risk factors. Cannabis use is associated with lower BMI, and lower BMI is related to lower levels of risk on other cardiometabolic risk factors.

Depression, anxiety and delinquency: Results from the Pittsburgh Youth Study

PurposeThe main aim of this research is to investigate to what extent within-individual changes in anxiety and depression are related to within-individual changes in theft and violence. MethodsThe youngest sample of the Pittsburgh Youth Study (PYS), a prospective longitudinal survey of 503 boys followed up from age 7 onwards, was analyzed. Depression and anxiety were measured for boys from ages 11 to 16 as were moderate and serious forms of self-reported theft and violence. A hierarchical linear random effects model was used to investigate anxiety and depression as potential causes or outcomes of these forms of delinquency. ResultsThe results showed that the between-individual correlations were consistently higher than the corresponding within-individual correlations, and provided little evidence to discern the directionality of the potential relationships between depression, anxiety and delinquency. Using a random effects approach, there was limited evidence that prior depression or anxiety was related to later offending, but there was evidence that offending (particularly theft and serious violence) was associated with later increases in anxiety, and to a lesser extent depression. ConclusionsThis study indicates that depression and anxiety were outcomes of offending. If replicated, this would suggest that evidence-based interventions which reduced offending would have a desirable influence in reducing depression and anxiety. However, interventions for depression should still form part of responsive interventions. More research which explores within-individual changes in longitudinal studies with repeated measures is needed.

Does Substance Use Exacerbate Escalation along Developmental Pathways of Covert and Overt Externalizing Behaviors among Young Men?

The delinquency Pathways Model proposes that the majority of those who engage in serious delinquent acts have gone through a sequence of externalizing behaviors from less to more serious delinquent behaviors. This study examined whether frequency of alcohol, marijuana, and hard drugs exacerbated escalation through the covert and overt pathways. Data came from the youngest cohort of the Pittsburgh Youth Study (N = 503). The young men were followed from mean age 7 through mean age 20. Sequences of offending were based on ages of onset of covert and overt delinquent behaviors. Survival analyses were conducted to examine the associations of frequency of use with risk for and timing of movement from the lowest to highest level in each pathway. Frequency of alcohol and marijuana use was related to greater risk of moving from the lowest to highest level in both pathways and hard drug use vs. nonuse was associated with moving from minor aggression to violence. Reducing frequency of substance use may interrupt escalation through the covert and overt pathways for young men once they enter the first level.

Violence de-mystified: Findings on violence by young males in the Pittsburgh Youth Study.

Violence de-mystified: Findings on violence by young males in the Pittsburgh Youth Study.

Bullying and Being Bullied in Childhood Are Associated With Different Psychosocial Risk Factors for Poor Physical Health in Men

Bullying and being bullied in childhood are both linked with later adjustment problems. The impact of childhood bullying on risk for poor physical health in adulthood is understudied. Black and White men (n = 305; mean age = 32.3 years) enrolled in the Pittsburgh Youth Study since the first grade underwent a comprehensive assessment of psychosocial, behavioral, and biological risk factors for poor health. Indices of bullying and being bullied were created by averaging annual ratings collected from participants and their caregivers when the participants were 10 to 12 years old. Results showed that being a bully in childhood was associated with greater stress and aggression and poorer health behaviors in adulthood, whereas being a victim of bullies in childhood was associated with lower socioeconomic resources, less optimism, and greater unfair treatment in adulthood. Unexpectedly, neither bullying nor being bullied in childhood was related to inflammation or metabolic syndrome. Bullying and being bullied in childhood were associated with distinct domains of psychosocial risk in adulthood that may later lead to poor physical health.

Investigation of Yoga Pranayama and Vedic Mathematics on Mindfulness, Aggression and Emotion Regulation.

Background:Competitive examinations, particularly in mathematics, have made emotional stress a major problem for preuniversity students, emotions like aggression toward fellow students and teachers increase. Mindfulness is a quality that reduces both emotional stress and aggression, so increasing mindfulness should be helpful.Aims:To study the effects of Yoga Pranayama (YP) and Vedic Mathematics (VM) on mindfulness, aggression, and emotion regulation.Methods:Participants were 12th graders attending a preuniversity college in Chikkamagaluru, India, of both genders. Exclusion criteria included major psychological problems. Three classes were arbitrarily assigned to one of three interventions, which consisted of 15 days each of 30 min daily instruction in YP, Group 1, VM, Group 2, or 30 min ordinary class work, Group 3, the control group. Assessments were made using the Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale, the Nonphysical Aggression Scale from Pittsburgh Youth Study, and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire.Statistical Analysis Used:SPSS 19.0.Results:Mindfulness, aggression, and negative emotional regulation changed significantly for the YP group, while mindfulness alone improved significantly for the VM group. No group changed on positive emotion regulation. Controls apparently improved on aggression. An interesting post hoc correlation analysis is also reported, among other things directly linking increased mindfulness to decreased aggression.Conclusions:The study showed positive effects of traditional methods of decreasing emotional pressure on students facing preuniversity mathematics examinations. Increasing mindfulness is considered a way of increasing emotion regulation, so the failure of this study to provide evidence for that is of interest.

Book review: Offending from Childhood to Young Adulthood---- Recent Results from the Pittsburgh Youth Study

The author of the book review briefly introduces the content of the book Offending from Childhood to Young Adulthood. This book provides valuable account of the continuity of criminal career from childhood to adulthood.

Book review: Offending from Childhood to Young Adulthood---- Recent Results from the Pittsburgh Youth Study

The author of the book review briefly introduces the content of the book Offending from Childhood to Young Adulthood. This book provides valuable account of the continuity of criminal career from childhood to adulthood.

Protective factors for violence: Results from the Pittsburgh Youth Study

PurposeThe main aim of this research is to investigate risk-based protective and interactive protective factors for violence. MethodsThe youngest sample of the Pittsburgh Youth Study, a prospective longitudinal survey of 503 boys followed-up from age 7 onwards, was analyzed. Variables measured at age 10–12 were investigated as predictors of an all-source measure of violence between ages 13 and 19. ResultsA number of individual (e.g., low hyperactivity, low psychopathic features) family (good supervision, low parental stress), school (high academic achievement, positive attitude to school) and demographic characteristics (older mother, good quality housing) were found to be risk-based protective factors for the various risk groups identified. High academic achievement was consistently found to be an interactive protective factor and was consistently independently related to low levels of violence. ConclusionsMuch more research on risk-based protective factors and interactive protective factors is needed so that these can be integrated into developmental and life-course explanations of offending. Also, interventions should be tailored to include knowledge about these protective factors in light of the specific risks that individuals possess.

Dissecting the Prevalence and Incidence of Offending During the Crime Drop of the 1990s

To evaluate whether the 1990s crime drop reflects a decrease in offending prevalence (the fraction of the population engaged in crime), offending incidence (the frequency of offending among active criminals), or some combination of the two. We use individual-level longitudinal data on adolescent offending patterns from the Pittsburgh Youth study (PYS), integrating information from the youngest and oldest cohorts to compare offending among 17–18 year old males at the beginning and end of the 1990s. Logistic and negative binomial regression models are estimated to assess whether there are significant differences in offending prevalence and incidence during the 1990s. The reduction in property crime rates in the PYS sample during the 1990s can be attributed to declines in both offending prevalence and incidence. The overall decline in serious violence during the 1990s for the full sample was primarily the result of a falloff in prevalence. However, for black youth our results indicate significant reductions in both the prevalence and incidence of serious violence. We did not detect a significant difference in illegal drug sales during the period. Using longitudinal data on individuals to decompose aggregate crime trends into changes in the prevalence and incidence of offending offers insights into the nature of the 1990s crime drop that cannot be discerned from aggregate crime data. Future research should build on the current study by examining the specific mechanisms that influence change over time in crime prevalence, incidence, or both.

The Prediction of Young Homicide and Violent Offenders

Aim was to investigate a range of potentially modifiable risk factors for boys in late childhood for later violence and homicide convictions. Boys from the Pittsburgh Youth Study (N = 1,517) were measured through self-reports and official records in late childhood (ages 11–13) on a large number of potentially modifiable risk factors, and were followed up in juvenile and adult criminal records in terms of violence and homicide. Predictors of conviction for homicide largely overlapped with predictors of conviction for violence. Twenty three out of 28 possible risk factors significantly predicted later violence convictions. Regression analysis identified four significant modifiable risk factors in late childhood for any violent offenders: physical abuse, parental stress, bad friends and low school motivation. The higher the number of early risk factors, the higher the probability of later conviction for violent offenses including homicide. The discussion focus on single-, and multi-modal interventions in late childhood to reduce later violence and possibly homicide.

Why is young maternal age at first childbirth a risk factor for persistent delinquency in their male offspring? Examining the role of family and parenting factors.

Children born to mothers who were younger than average at their first childbirth are at increased risk for future persistent delinquent behaviour, but explanations for this remain unclear. Our aim was to identify possible family and parenting variables that may help explain this relationship. We hypothesised that parental stress, large number of children in the home, low socioeconomic status (including neighbourhood problems) and poor parenting would account for the link between early first motherhood and their offspring's delinquency. Four hundred and sixty-two boys were selected from the Pittsburgh Youth Study, a longitudinal study of a random sample of school boys in Pittsburgh, initially assessed half-yearly and then annually from 7 to 19 years of age, using self-reporting and other reporting methods. Indirect effect models were used to test relationships between variables. Higher levels of parental stress, poorer parent-child communication and caring for a larger number of children all mediated the relationship between maternal youth and persistent delinquency by their boys, but only explained about 20% of it. At least partial explanations of the relationship between a mother's age at first childbirth and persistent delinquency in her male offspring suggest that future research should test whether early interventions with younger mothers to decrease their sense of stress in parenting and improve their capacity for communication with their child(ren) may help to prevent persistent delinquency in their boys. Programmes designed to help young women make more informed and planned decisions about their pregnancies should also be evaluated. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Cognitive impulsivity and the development of delinquency from late childhood to early adulthood: Moderating effects of parenting behavior and peer relationships.

Cognitive impulsivity may increase children's risk of developing delinquent behavior. However, the influence of cognitive impulsivity may depend on social environmental risk factors. This study examined the moderating effect of late childhood parenting behaviors and peer relations on the influence of children's cognitive impulsivity on delinquency development across adolescence and early adulthood, while taking possible interactions with intelligence also into account. Delinquent behavior of 412 boys from the Pittsburgh Youth Study was measured annually from ages 13 to 29 years with official arrest records. Cognitive impulsivity (neurocognitive test scores) and intelligence were assessed at age 12-13. Parenting behaviors (persistence of discipline, positive reinforcement, and parental knowledge), peer delinquency, and peer conventional activities were assessed between ages 10 and 13 years. Results showed that, while controlling for intelligence, the influence of youths' cognitive impulsivity on delinquency depended on their parents' behaviors. An interaction was found among cognitive impulsivity, intelligence, and peer delinquency, but instead of cognitive impulsivity, the effect of intelligence on delinquency was particularly moderated. Overall, findings suggest that when there was moderation, high cognitive impulsivity and low intelligence were associated with an increased probability for engaging in delinquency predominantly among boys in a good social environment, but not in a poor social environment.