Risk Factors For Antisocial Behavior Research Articles

The Mediating and Moderating Role of Sensation-Seeking in the Association between Resting Heart Rate and Antisocial Behavior

The association between lower resting heart rate and antisocial behavior has been suggested to be mediated by sensation-seeking. However, other theoretical models suggest that sensation-seeking has a moderating influence. This study sought to investigate the interplay between resting heart rate, sensation-seeking and antisocial behavior. Two subsets of participants from the Risk Factors for Antisocial Behavior (RFAB) project (n = 690, n = 391) were used. We conducted mediation analyses and logistic regression analyses to test for mediating and moderating effects of sensation-seeking on the association between resting heart rate and antisocial behavior by young adulthood. In general, sensation-seeking partially mediated the association between resting heart rate in childhood as well as adolescence and antisocial behavior by young adulthood. Resting heart rate in childhood and adolescence also interacted with sensation-seeking to predict antisocial behavior by young adulthood, such that a lower resting heart rate increased the odds of antisocial behavior among individuals with higher but not lower levels of sensation-seeking. Our results on a theoretical level suggest that sensation-seeking is important to understand the association between resting heart rate and antisocial behavior. Results further suggest that encouraging prosocial behaviors as a means of fulfilling the need for stimulation in individuals with a psychophysiological risk profile could serve as an effective approach in redirecting their behaviors towards positive outcomes.

Antisocial behavior is associated with reduced frontoparietal network efficiency in youth.

Youth antisocial behavior (AB) is associated with deficits in socioemotional processing, reward and threat processing and executive functioning. These deficits are thought to emerge from differences in neural structure, functioning and connectivity, particularly within the default, salience and frontoparietal networks. However, the relationship between AB and the organization of these networks remains unclear. To address this gap, the current study applied unweighted, undirected graph analyses to resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data in a cohort of 161 adolescents (95 female) enriched for exposure to poverty, a risk factor for AB. As prior work indicates that callous-unemotional (CU) traits may moderate the neurocognitive profile of youth AB, we examined CU traits as a moderator. Using multi-informant latent factors, AB was found to be associated with less efficient frontoparietal network topology, a network associated with executive functioning. However, this effect was limited to youth at low or mean levels of CU traits, indicating that these neural differences were specific to those high on AB but not CU traits. Neither AB, CU traits nor their interaction was significantly related to default or salience network topologies. Results suggest that AB, specifically, may be linked with shifts in the architecture of the frontoparietal network.

A Polygenic Risk Score Enhances Risk Prediction for Adolescents' Antisocial Behavior over the Combined Effect of 22 Extra-familial, Familial, and Individual Risk Factors in the Context of the Family Check-Up.

Possessing informative tools to predict who is most at risk for antisocial behavior in adolescence is important to help identify families most in need of early intervention. Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) have been shown to predict antisocial behavior, but it remains unclear whether PRSs provide additional benefit above more conventional tools to early risk detection for antisocial behavior. This study examined the utility of a PRS in predicting adolescents' antisocial behavior after accounting for a broad index of children's contextual and individual risk factors for antisocial behavior. Participants were drawn from a longitudinal family-based prevention study (N = 463; Ncontrol = 224; 48.8% girls; 45.1% White; 30.2% Black; 12.7% Hispanic/Latino, 10.4% biracial; 0.2% Native American). Participants were recruited from US-based Women, Infants, and Children Nutritional Supplement programs. A risk tolerance PRS was created from a genome-wide association study. We created a robust measure capturing additive effects of 22 conventional measures of a risk of antisocial behavior assessed at child age 2 (before intervention). A latent variable capturing antisocial behavior (ages 10.5-16) was created. After accounting for intervention status and the conventional risk index, the risk tolerance PRS predicted independent variance in antisocial behavior. A PRS-by-conventional risk interaction showed that the conventional risk measure only predicted antisocial behavior at high levels of the PRS. Thus, the risk tolerance PRS provides unique predictive information above conventional screening tools and, when combined with them, identified a higher-risk subgroup of children. Integrating PRSs could facilitate risk identification and, ultimately, prevention screening, particularly in settings unable to serve all individuals in need.

Relationship between resting heart rate and law enforcement involvement: The moderating role of socioeconomic status in a sample of urban youth

PurposeResting heart rate (RHR) is a well-established biological risk factor for criminal behavior. However, potential moderating effects of social risk factors like socioeconomic status on this relationship remain unclear. The current study sought to clarify the moderating impact of socioeconomic status on the relation between low RHR in childhood and adolescence and subsequent legal system involvement by young adulthood. MethodsA subset of twins and triplets from the Risk Factors for Antisocial Behavior (RFAB) project (N = 347) were utilized to test hypotheses. Logistic regression analyses were performed to test for a moderating effect of socioeconomic status on the relationship between RHR and later law enforcement involvement (trouble with police, arrest). ResultsResting HR and SES were individually associated with an increased likelihood of being in trouble with the police and being arrested. In addition, RHR and SES in adolescence interacted to predict trouble with the police and arrest history by young adulthood, such that low RHR predicted these outcomes among adolescents who remained in low SES backgrounds. ConclusionsAdolescents who remain in low socioeconomic backgrounds from childhood will be a particularly important group to target in terms of treatment efforts to prevent criminal behavior.

Parenting moderates the etiology of callous-unemotional traits in middle childhood.

Callous-unemotional (CU) traits are associated with chronic and escalating trajectories of antisocial behavior. Extant etiologic studies suggest that heritability estimates for CU traits vary substantially, while also pointing to an environmental association between parenting and CU traits. We used twin modeling to estimate additive genetic (A), shared environmental (C), and nonshared environmental (E) influences on CU traits, measured with the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU) and its subscales. Our sample included 600 twin pairs (age 6-11, 230 monozygotic) from neighborhoods with above-average levels of family poverty, a risk factor for antisocial behavior. We examined the extent to which correlations between parenting, measured via parent and child report on the Parental Environment Questionnaire, and CU traits reflected genetic versus environmental factors. Then, we tested whether parenting moderated the heritability of CU traits. In the context of lower-income neighborhoods, CU traits were moderately to highly heritable (A = 54%) with similar moderate-to-high nonshared environmental influences (E = 46%). Bivariate models revealed that associations between CU traits and warm parenting were genetic (rA = .22) and environmental (rE = .19) in origin, whereas associations between CU traits and harsh parenting were largely genetic in origin (rA = .70). The heritability of CU traits decreased with increasing parental warmth and decreasing harshness. Callous-unemotional traits are both genetic and environmental in origin during middle childhood, but genetic influences are moderated by parenting quality. Parenting may be an important target for interventions, particularly among youth with greater genetic risk.

Estimating the monetary cost of risk factors for crime in boys using the EARL-20B.

This study examined the relationship between early childhood risk factors for antisocial behavior and the monetary costs associated with criminal convictions for 379 clinic-referred boys. Participants were assessed using a structured risk assessment instrument, the Early Assessment Risk List for Boys (EARL-20B), intended for use with boys aged 6-11 with conduct problems. Criminal conviction data were used to calculate costs borne by victims, the correctional system, and other areas of the criminal justice system for participants between the ages of 12 and 20. For the total sample, the average cost per person was $580,181. Using the EARL-20B total score to derive quartile groups, the average lowest and highest risk quartile boys cost $361,581 and $878,460, respectively. Including estimates associated with undetected crimes increased per-person estimates to $1,058,854 and $3,536,441. For all risk groups, most of the costs occurred during mid-to-late adolescence, between the ages of 15-17. Analyses of individual EARL-20B items revealed that the three most expensive risk factors were manifesting antisocial attitudes ($920,657), poor coping ability ($768,416), and poor academic performance ($772,256). The results from this study show that it is possible to quantify childhood risk in monetary terms, and that substantial cost savings can be realized if developmental crime prevention programs are targeted at antisocial children before they reach the age of criminal liability. Psychologists play an important role in this pursuit by developing and using risk/needs assessment instruments, choosing and targeting interventions based on the results, developing new programs, training personnel, and evaluating the effectiveness of programs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Higher Order Language: Risk, Promotive, and Risk-Based Protective Associations with Youth Offending

Research has implicated oral language deficits as risk factors for antisocial behavior. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between higher order language skills and youth offending through a risk, promotive and risk-based protective factor paradigm. In a sample of adolescent males ( n = 130; 13 to 20 years; 62% youth offenders) skills in understanding ambiguity, making inferences, and understanding figurative language were demonstrated to have risk and promotive effects in association with youth offending. Figurative language also met criteria for having risk-based protective effects for youth at high offending risk due to poor nonverbal skills. Conceptualization of higher order language skills through this paradigm promotes a broader frame of reference for considering theoretical models and practical interventions.

Pursuing the developmental aims of the triarchic model of psychopathy: Creation and validation of triarchic scales for use in the USC: RFAB longitudinal twin project.

The triarchic model was advanced as an integrative, trait-based framework for investigating psychopathy using different assessment methods and across developmental periods. Recent research has shown that the triarchic traits of boldness, meanness, and disinhibition can be operationalized effectively in youth, but longitudinal research is needed to realize the model's potential to advance developmental understanding of psychopathy. We report on the creation and validation of scale measures of the triarchic traits using questionnaire items available in the University of Southern California Risk Factors for Antisocial Behavior (RFAB) project, a large-scale longitudinal study of the development of antisocial behavior that includes measures from multiple modalities (self-report, informant rating, clinical-diagnostic, task-behavioral, physiological). Using a construct-rating and psychometric refinement approach, we developed triarchic scales that showed acceptable reliability, expected intercorrelations, and good temporal stability. The scales showed theory-consistent relations with external criteria including measures of psychopathy, internalizing/externalizing psychopathology, antisocial behavior, and substance use. Findings demonstrate the viability of measuring triarchic traits in the RFAB sample, extend the known nomological network of these traits into the developmental realm, and provide a foundation for follow-up studies examining the etiology of psychopathic traits and their relations with multimodal measures of cognitive-affective function and proneness to clinical problems.

Identification and validation of risk factors for antisocial behaviour involving police

Adult antisocial behaviour has precursors in childhood and adolescence and is most successfully treated using childhood interventions. The aim of this study was to identify and validate robust risk factors for antisocial behaviour involving police contact in a data-driven, hypothesis-free framework. Antisocial behavior involving police contact (20/25% incidence) as well as 554 other behavioural and environmental measures were assessed in the longitudinal general population Estonian Children Personality Behaviour and Health Study sample (n=872). The strongest risk factors for antisocial behaviour included past substance use disorder, gender, aggressive mode of action upon provocation, and concentration difficulties and physical fighting in school at age 15 years. Prediction using the selected variables for both methods in the other, unseen cohort resulted in an area under the receiver operating characteristics curve of 0.78-0.84. Our work confirms known risk factors for antisocial behaviour as well as identifies novel specific risk factors. Together, these provide good predictive power in an unseen cohort. Our identification and validation of risk factors for antisocial behaviour can aid early intervention for at-risk individuals.

Low Self-Esteem and Impairments in Emotion Recognition Predict Behavioural Problems in Children

Research indicates that low self-esteem and impaired emotion recognition are risk factors for antisocial behaviour (ASB). Self-esteem and emotion recognition are essential for successful social interaction and previous research suggests that self-esteem and emotional intelligence are positively related. However, to our knowledge the relationship between these two risk factors for ASB has not been explored in children with behavioural problems. Thus, this study investigated self-esteem and emotion recognition, their relationship with one another and with behavioural problem severity. Participants were 8–11 year olds with behavioural problems (BP; n = 78) who were taking part in an early intervention program, and typically developing controls (TD; n = 54). Participants completed a self-esteem questionnaire and a computerised emotion recognition task. Teachers and parents rated children’s emotional and behavioural problems. BP participants had significantly lower self-esteem and exhibited an impairment in emotion recognition. Self-esteem and emotion recognition were positively related and inversely associated with behavioural problem severity and they predicted behaviour problems independently of one another. This is the first study to show that self-esteem and emotion recognition are related processes in children with behavioural problems and that both predict behavioural problems. This has important implications for the development of intervention strategies.

Risk factors for antisocial behavior in children: comparison between boys and girls

Abstract Recognizing the importance of assessing the risk of antisocial behavior, this study aimed to characterize the risk factors for the occurrence of antisocial behavior, seeking to understand if there are differences between boys and girls. Eighty-five cases of children referred by the promotion and protection system due to the display of antisocial behaviors were reviewed. A total of 65 were boys and 20 were girls, aged between six and eleven years. Data collection was performed using the Portuguese version of the risk assessment instruments Early Assessment Risk List for boys and for girls. Gender differences were assessed, with boys exhibiting a higher risk level for antisocial behavior, adopting more serious behaviors (e.g., impulsive behaviors). Girls engaged in less serious behavior (e.g., disrespect). By characterizing the most prevalent risk factors, the results of this study may contribute to the identification of intervention priorities.

Early childhood head injury attenuates declines in impulsivity and aggression across adolescent development in twins.

Head injury during development has been associated with behavioral changes such as impulsivity and antisocial behavior. This study investigates the extent to which behavioral changes associated with childhood head injury are sustained through adolescence and emerging adulthood. Survey data was collected at 5 waves spanning 12 years (ages 9-20) from the University of Southern California Risk Factors for Antisocial Behavior twin study. Impulsivity was measured by errors of commission in a Go/NoGo behavioral task, and aggression was measured through youth self-report using the Reactive-Proactive Aggression Questionnaire. Head injury was assessed retrospectively using caregiver questionnaires at twin ages 14-15 years and self-reported at ages 19-20 years. Participants with a head injury in early childhood showed significant delay in the normative developmental decline of impulsivity relative to the noninjured by mid-adolescence (ages 14-15.) Moreover, earlier age at injury was related to a slower decrease in impulsivity and greater increase in reactive aggression scores. Finally, among discordant monozygotic twin pairs, the twin with a head injury experienced significantly less decline in impulsivity by ages 19-20 than the noninjured co-twin. These findings indicate early childhood head injury may play a significant role in blunting the decline in impulsivity across development, exposing an additional risk factor for antisocial behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Impact of Family and Friends on Antisocial Adolescent Behavior: The Mediating Role of Impulsivity and Empathy.

Adolescence is an especially risky phase for the appearance of antisocial behaviors. Antisocial behavior produces significant individual and social harms, so it is important to provide keys for prevention and treatment. To do that, it is essential to identify the main predictors. The objective of this study is to analyze the effect of family (affection and communication, behavioral control) and friends (antisocial friendships) on adolescent antisocial behavior, as well as the mediating role of adolescent impulsivity and empathy on these relationships. Previously validated questionnaires measuring parental affection and communication, and behavioral control, as well as adolescent impulsivity, empathy, antisocial friendships, and antisocial behavior were applied to 3199 adolescents in Asturias (Spain), aged between 11 and 18 (M = 14.03; SD = 1.39). Descriptive, correlational, and structural equation analysis were performed. Antisocial friendships were a risk factor for antisocial behavior in adolescence, with a moderate effect size. The effect is mostly direct, although it is also indirect through the positive relationship with adolescent impulsivity and low empathy. The two analyzed parenting style dimensions (affection and communication, and behavioral control) demonstrate a protective effect, albeit small, on adolescent antisocial behavior. There is a direct protective effect, but it is mostly indirect through the negative relationship with antisocial friendships and low adolescent empathy. Parental behavioral control can be a risk factor for antisocial behavior, through the positive relationship with adolescent impulsivity. This study helps to clarify the causal mechanisms of antisocial behavior in adolescence, as a basis for its prevention and treatment.

Interrupting Intergenerational Offending in the Context of America’s Social Disaster of Mass Imprisonment

Paralleling the growth of the U.S. criminal justice system in recent decades, American families have increasingly experienced a social disaster of parents, and subsequently their children, undergoing imprisonment. Adopting a life course perspective to examine the likely drivers of the intergenerational transmission of offending and incarceration, we contextualize the development of antisocial behavior in an era of mass imprisonment. In doing so, we draw from the literature on the sociology of disasters to examine how traumas related to intergenerational incarceration may be both understood and ameliorated through appropriate policies and interventions. We argue that it is possible to better frame how risk factors for antisocial behavior, such as prenatal maternal stress, exposure to trauma, and deviant peer groups, may be integrated with factors that promote resilience and recovery. This includes improving safety, self-efficacy, and connectedness to prevent intergenerational offending and incarceration and facilitate desistance. By framing mass incarceration as a social disaster, a multifaceted, comprehensive approach takes on new urgency so as to reduce the prevalence of intergenerational offending and incarceration among millions of families in the United States.

What do others feel? Cognitive empathy deficits explain the association between callous-unemotional traits and conduct problems among preschool children

Callous-unemotional traits (CU) are a risk factor for antisocial behavior, although it is unclear whether deficits in affective or cognitive empathy explain this association. Using a multi-informant approach involving data collection from parents and teachers (N = 167, M age = 4.7 years), the current study aimed to test whether cognitive or affective empathy deficits account for the association between CU traits and antisocial behavior among preschool children. Results revealed that cognitive, but not affective, empathy was associated with both CU and conduct problems, and also mediated the relationship between CU traits and conduct problems. These findings were not replicated for overt and relational aggressive behavior. Our findings suggest that cognitive empathy deficits may be more important than affective empathy in explaining antisocial behavior in preschool children. As a result, interventions aiming to reduce conduct problems early in development may need to target difficulties in understanding what others are thinking or feeling.

Risk Factors for Antisocial Behavior in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review of Longitudinal Studies.

Violent crime is a major cause of social instability, injury, and death in low- and middle-income countries. Longitudinal studies in high-income countries have provided important evidence on developmental precursors of violence and other antisocial behaviors. However, there may be unique influences or different risk factor effects in other social settings. Extensive searches in seven languages and screening of over 60,000 references identified 39 longitudinal studies of antisocial behavior in low- and middle-income countries. Many risk factors have roughly the same average effects as when studied in high-income countries. Stability of aggression over a 3-year period is almost identical across low- and middle-income countries and high-income countries. Dimensions of comorbid psychopathology such as low self-control, hyperactivity, and sensation seeking are associated with antisocial behavior in low- and middle-income countries, but some early physical health factors have consistently weak or null effects.

Imagining Moral Bioenhancement Practices: Drawing Inspiration from Moral Education, Public Health Ethics, and Forensic Psychiatry.

In this article, we consider contexts or domains in which (future) moral bioenhancement interventions possibly or most likely will be implemented. By looking closely at similar or related existing practices and their relevant ethical frameworks, we hope to identify ethical considerations that are relevant for evaluating potential moral bioenhancement interventions. We examine, first, debates on the proper scope of moral education; second, proposals for identifying early risk factors for antisocial behaviour; and third, the difficult balancing of individual freedom and third party concerns in (forensic) psychiatry. In imagining moral bioenhancement in practice, we observe that unlike other forms of enhancement, moral enhancement fundamentally asks how the interests and preferences of the individual and the interests of others should be weighed (in view of public safety and managing public risk). Highly diverse domains such as education, mental health, and the judicial domain might be involved, and moral bioenhancement might challenge existing institutional settings. Given these highly varied contexts and domains, it appears unlikely that there will be a distinct set of practices that will be referred to as "moral bioenhancement."

Within-individual versus between-individual predictors of antisocial behaviour: A longitudinal study of young people in Victoria, Australia.

In an influential 2002 paper, Farrington and colleagues argued that to understand 'causes' of delinquency, within-individual analyses of longitudinal data are required (compared to the vast majority of analyses that have focused on between-individual differences). The current paper aimed to complete similar analyses to those conducted by Farrington and colleagues by focusing on the developmental correlates and risk factors for antisocial behaviour and by comparing within-individual and between-individual predictors of antisocial behaviour using data from the youngest Victorian cohort of the International Youth Development Study, a state-wide representative sample of 927 students from Victoria, Australia. Data analysed in the current paper are from participants in Year 6 (age 11-12 years) in 2003 to Year 11 (age 16-17 years) in 2008 (N = 791; 85% retention) with data collected almost annually. Participants completed a self-report survey of risk and protective factors and antisocial behaviour. Complete data were available for 563 participants. The results of this study showed all but one of the forward- (family conflict) and backward-lagged (low attachment to parents) correlations were statistically significant for the within-individual analyses compared with all analyses being statistically significant for the between-individual analyses. In general, between-individual correlations were greater in magnitude than within-individual correlations. Given that forward-lagged within-individual correlations provide more salient measures of causes of delinquency, it is important that longitudinal studies with multi-wave data analyse and report their data using both between-individual and within-individual correlations to inform current prevention and early intervention programs seeking to reduce rates of antisocial behaviour.

What are the Risk Factors for Antisocial Behavior Among Low‐income Youth in CapeTown?

AbstractResearch in high‐income countries has identified an array of risk factors for youth antisocial behavior. However, in low‐ and middle‐income countries, despite higher prevalence of offending and antisocial behavior, there is a paucity of prospective, longitudinal evidence examining predictors. South Africa is a middle‐income country with high rates of violence and crime, and a unique social context, characterized by striking income and gender inequality, and increasing number of children orphaned by AIDS. We tested predictors of antisocial behavior at community, family, and individual levels over four years. One thousand and twenty five adolescents from poor, urban South African settlements were assessed in 2005 (50 percent female; M = 13.4 years) and followed up in 2009. The sample analyzed consisted of the 723 youth (71 percent) assessed at both time points. We employed sociodemographic questionnaires and standardized scales. Validity of our antisocial behavior measure was supported by cross‐sectional associations with well‐evidenced concomitants of youth antisocial behavior, including drug taking and truancy. Regression analysis indicated that male gender and experience of community violence, but not poverty or abuse, predicted antisocial behavior. Despite many South African youth experiencing abuse and poverty at the family level, our findings suggest that high levels of violence in communities may be a more important factor contributing to the development of antisocial behavior, particularly among males.

Using the Risk and Resilience Approach to Predict Psychopathy in an Emerging Adult Sample

Psychopathy has been shown to be a risk factor for antisocial behavior, aggression, violence, and criminal offending. Elucidating the variables that predict the likelihood of psychopathy, therefore, is important. The current study used the risk and resiliency approach to test the possible risk and protective factors of primary psychopathy using a noninstitutionalized college-aged sample. Of particular interest, we tested the individual and cumulative risk of several defining features of emerging adulthood (assessed using the Inventory of the Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood measure), sex of participant, and trait mindfulness. Participants ( N = 822) from various colleges and universities in the United States completed questionnaires used to assess the pertinent variables using a correlational design. Results showed that sex (i.e., male), low mindfulness, low identity exploration, and low other-focused orientation were risk factors for primary psychopathy. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of emerging adulthood development.