Subsequent Antisocial Behavior Research Articles

Perceived life expectancy, environmental unpredictability, and behavior in high-risk youth

According to evolutionary models of human development, environmental unpredictability induces expectations in youth that their future is uncertain, and these expectations set youth on trajectories toward opportunistic and socially deviant behaviors. Using longitudinal data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being, the present study tested this proposition, evaluating whether greater environmental unpredictability forecast youths' (N = 1768 youth ages 8–16 years; 55% female) lower perceived life expectancy, and whether these expectations in turn predicted greater subsequent antisocial behavior and lower social competence. Higher levels of exposure to environmental unpredictability at baseline were predictive of greater subsequent antisocial behavior and lower social competence. Moreover, as theorized, lower perceived life expectancy mediated the associations between environmental unpredictability and subsequent behavior. Findings have implications for understanding developmental antecedents of socially undesirable patterns of behavior and targeting prevention and intervention efforts.

Callous-Unemotional Behaviors and Harsh Parenting: Reciprocal Associations across Early Childhood and Moderation by Inherited Risk.

Callous-unemotional (CU) behaviors increase children's risk for subsequent antisocial behavior. This risk process may begin in early childhood with reciprocal pathways between CU behaviors and harsh parenting. In a sample of 561 linked triads of biological mothers, adoptive parents, and adopted children, the present study examined bidirectional links between CU behaviors and harsh parenting across three time points from 18 to 54months and investigated moderation by inherited risk for psychopathic traits. Child CU behaviors and harsh parenting were measured using adoptive mother and adoptive father reports, and biological mothers provided reports of their personality characteristics. Findings supported reciprocal associations between harsh parenting and CU behaviors during early childhood, especially during the transition from toddlerhood (27months) to the preschool period (54months). Moreover, multiple-group analyses showed that level of inherited risk moderated associations between CU behaviors and harsh parenting. Specifically, there were statistically reliable associations between CU behaviors at 27months and adoptive mothers' harsh parenting at 54months, and between adoptive fathers' harsh parenting at 27months and CU behaviors at 54months among children at higher inherited risk, but not among those at lower inherited risk. The findings illustrate the dynamic interplay between parenting, CU behaviors, and heritable risk.

Witnessing violence in early secondary school predicts subsequent student impairment

BackgroundPast research suggests that adolescents who witness violence are at risk of adjustment problems. However, few studies have implemented a longitudinal design and have accounted for direct experiences of victimisation...

Maternal Smoking During Pregnancy and Offspring Antisocial Behavior

Although maternal smoking during pregnancy has been associated with subsequent antisocial behavior in offspring, even in animals, causal links have not

The role of sleep problems in the relationship between peer victimization and antisocial behavior: A five-year longitudinal study

RationalePeer victimization in children and adolescents is a serious public health concern. Growing evidence exists for negative consequences of peer victimization, but research has mostly been short term and little is known about the mechanisms that moderate and mediate the impacts of peer victimization on subsequent antisocial behavior. ObjectiveThe current study intended to examine the longitudinal relationship between peer victimization in adolescence and antisocial behavior in young adulthood and to determine whether sleep problems influence this relationship. MethodsIn total, 2006 adolescents participated in a prospective study from 2009 to 2013. The moderating role of sleep problems was examined by testing the significance of the interaction between peer victimization and sleep problems. The mediating role of sleep problems was tested by using bootstrapping mediational analyses. All analyses were conducted using SAS 9.3 software. ResultsWe found that peer victimization during adolescence was positively and significantly associated with antisocial behavior in young adulthood (β = 0.10, p < 0.0001). This association was mediated, but not moderated by sleep problems. Specifically, peer victimization first increased levels of sleep problems, which in turn elevated the risk of antisocial behavior (indirect effect: 0.01, 95% bootstrap confidence interval: 0.004, 0.021). ConclusionThese findings imply that sleep problems may operate as a potential mechanism through which peer victimization during adolescence leads to increases in antisocial behavior in young adulthood. Prevention and intervention programs that target sleep problems may yield benefits for decreasing antisocial behavior in adolescents who have been victimized by peers.

Evaluation of Improvement in Externalizing Behaviors and Callous-Unemotional Traits in Children with Disruptive Behavior Disorder: A 1-Year Follow Up Clinic-Based Study.

Multi-component interventions based on cognitive behavioral principles and practices have been found effective in reducing behavioral problems in children with disruptive behavior disorders (oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder). However, it is still unclear if these interventions can affect children's callous-unemotional traits, which are predictive of subsequent antisocial behavior. Furthermore, it could be important to identify empirically supported treatment protocols for specific disorders addressed by child mental health services. The present study aimed to test the following two hypotheses: first, the Coping Power (CP) treatment program is able to reduce externalizing behaviors in children with disruptive behavior disorders treated in a mental health care unit; second, the CP program can reduce children's callous unemotional traits. The sample included 98 Italian children, 33 treated with the CP program; 37 with a less focused multi-component intervention, and 28 with child psychotherapy. The results showed that the CP program was more effective than the other two treatments in reducing aggressive behaviors. Furthermore, only the CP program was associated with a decrease in children's callous unemotional traits. The CP program was also associated with lower rate of referrals to mental health services at one-year follow-up. These findings support the importance of disseminating manualized and focused intervention programs in mental health services.

Early starting, aggressive, and/or callous-unemotional? Examining the overlap and predictive utility of antisocial behavior subtypes.

Antisocial behavior (AB) in adolescence predicts problematic outcomes in adulthood. However, researchers have noted marked heterogeneity within the broad group of youth engaging in these destructive behaviors and have attempted to identify those with distinct etiologies and different trajectories of symptoms. In the present study, we evaluate 3 prominent AB subtyping approaches: age of onset, presence of callous-unemotional (CU) traits, and aggressive versus rule-breaking symptoms. We examined the overlap of these subtypes and their predictive validity in a diverse sample of 268 low-income young men followed prospectively from adolescence into emerging adulthood. We found that those with early starting AB were uniquely high on aggressive symptoms but not on CU traits. Early starting AB and both aggression and rule breaking measured during adolescence predicted most subsequent psychiatric and AB outcomes in early adulthood in univariate models, whereas CU traits were only predictive of adolescent arrests, later substance dependence diagnosis, and later CU traits. Finally, after accounting for shared variance among predictor variables, we found that aggressive symptoms explained the most unique variance in predicting several later outcomes (e.g., antisocial personality disorder) over and above other subtyping approaches. Results are discussed in relation to of the use of existing subtyping approaches to AB, noting that aggression and age of onset but not CU traits appear to be the best at predicting later negative outcome.

Profiles of Maternal Parenting Practices: Exploring the Link With Maternal Delinquency, Offending, Mental Health, and Children's Physical Aggression.

Studies have often linked parenting to children's subsequent antisocial behavior; however, the circumstances under which this might occur are less clear. The current study explores patterns in mothers' parenting practices, and associated correlates including maternal delinquency and offending, mental health, and children's physical aggression. This study is based on the first wave of the ongoing Vancouver Longitudinal Study; the objective of this prospective study is to identify the early risk and protective factors for aggression and violence from the earliest developmental periods. Parenting practices of 287 mothers with preschoolers are examined using a series of latent class analyses. Three different patterns of parenting emerged: Positive, Negative, and Intermittent. Patterns identified are associated with several key criminogenic, socio-demographic, historical, and developmental factors including current maternal adult offending, mothers' mental health, ethnicity, and frequency of children's physical aggression. Importantly, mothers who show parenting in line with the more negative classes also rely on a number of positive practices. Implications of the study suggest that parenting is influenced by mothers' immediate situations and contexts (e.g., current offending rather that past delinquency), which can be targeted for intervention.

Prospective associations between early long-term household tobacco smoke exposure and antisocial behaviour in later childhood

BackgroundUsing a prospective birth cohort design, we estimate the relative contribution of long-term postnatal nicotine exposure from 17 to 86 months on children's subsequent antisocial behaviour by the end of...

Information management strategies in early adolescence: Developmental change in use and transactional associations with psychological adjustment.

Adolescents use various strategies to manage their parents' access to information. This study tested developmental change in strategy use, longitudinal associations between disclosing and concealing strategies, and longitudinal associations linking disclosing and concealing strategies with antisocial behavior and depressive symptoms. Self-report data (n = 218; 49% female; 49% European American, 47% African American) following Grades 5 (M age = 11 years, 11 months), 6, and 7 show that the use of disclosing strategies (e.g., telling all, telling if asked) following misbehavior declined while use of concealing strategies (e.g., omitting details, keeping secrets, lying) increased over time. Longitudinal links between strategies suggest a transactional process wherein infrequent disclosing is a gateway to concealment but concealment also predicts subsequent rank-order reductions in disclosure. Infrequent disclosing was associated with more subsequent antisocial behavior and depressive symptoms, whereas more antisocial behavior was associated with more subsequent concealment. Although absolute declines in disclosure and increases in concealment are normative, individual differences show that adolescents reporting low levels of disclosure, rather than high levels of concealment, appear to experience the most adjustment problems.

Does Adolescent Bullying Distinguish Between Male Offending Trajectories in Late Middle Age?

The perpetration of bullying is a significant issue among researchers, policymakers, and the general public. Although researchers have examined the link between bullying and subsequent antisocial behavior, data and methodological limitations have hampered firm conclusions. This study uses longitudinal data from 411 males in the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development from ages 8 to 56 in order to examine the relationship between adolescent bullying and distinct late middle adulthood trajectories of offending, in which different groups of males follow different offending pathways. Results show that self-reported bullying predicts only certain adult offending trajectories but that the effect becomes insignificant once controls are introduced for childhood risk factors, although this may be due to the small number of the most chronic offenders. Study implications and directions for future research are noted.

Comorbid Trajectories of Tobacco and Marijuana Use as Related to Psychological Outcomes

ABSTRACT Heterogeneous classes of comorbid trajectories of tobacco and marijuana use were examined in order to determine how they are related to subsequent antisocial behavior, poor self-control, and internalizing behavior. Data are from a 4-wave longitudinal study of African American (n = 243) and Puerto Rican (n = 232) adolescents and adults in the community. Logistic regression analyses were employed to measure the association between the comorbid trajectories of tobacco and marijuana use and the psychological difficulty variables. The authors found 6 joint trajectory groups. The authors compared the non-or-experimental tobacco/marijuana use group with the other user groups in each of the psychological difficulty domains. The infrequent tobacco/late-onset marijuana use and chronic tobacco/marijuana use groups differed most strongly from the non-or-experimental tobacco/marijuana use group across the antisocial behavior, poor self-control, and internalizing problems domains. The chronic tobacco/maturing out marijuana use group also had significant associations in each of these domains. The infrequent tobacco/marijuana use and late-onset tobacco/infrequent marijuana use groups had no or weak associations with the psychological outcomes. Tobacco and marijuana cessation programs should identify and address comorbid use of tobacco and marijuana, and antisocial behavior, poor self-control, and internalizing problems, which are associated with histories of comorbid use of the 2 substances.

Bullying in early adolescence and its association with anti‐social behaviour, criminality and violence 6 and 10 years later

Few longitudinal studies have examined the links between engagement in bullying and later anti-social behaviour for both males and females. This study aimed to examine the association between adolescent bullying behaviour and subsequent anti-social behaviour, among a community sample of Australian males and females. Regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between bullying perpetration at age 13-14 and anti-social behaviour, criminal violence and contact with police or courts 6 and 10 years later among approximately 800 young adults participating in a 27-year longitudinal study. The analyses controlled for known risk factors for anti-social behaviour at age 13-14 years. Moderate significant associations were found between bullying perpetration and subsequent anti-social behaviour. Associations were more powerful for males than females, and for short-term than long-term outcomes. Engagement in bullying remained a significant predictor of later anti-social behaviour and contact with police or courts even after other risk factors were accounted for. These findings suggest that bullying in adolescence may be a marker of risk for a continuing pattern of anti-social behaviour, particularly among young males.

Methylation at 5HTT Mediates the Impact of Child Sex Abuse on Women's Antisocial Behavior: An Examination of the Iowa Adoptee Sample

To examine epigenetic processes linking childhood sex abuse to symptoms of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) in adulthood and to investigate the possibility that the link between childhood sex abuse and deoxyribonucleic acid methylation at the 5HTT promoter might represent a pathway of long-term impact on symptoms of ASPD. Deoxyribonucleic acid was prepared from lymphoblast cell lines derived from 155 female participants in the latest wave of the Iowa Adoptee Study. Methylation at 71 CpG residues was determined by quantitative mass spectroscopy, and the resulting values were averaged to produce an average CpG ratio for each participant. Simple associations and path analyses within an Mplus framework were examined to characterize the relationships among childhood sex abuse, overall level of methylation among women, and subsequent antisocial behavior in adulthood. Direct effects of biological parent psychopathology and 5HTT genotype were controlled. Replicating prior work, we found that a significant effect of childhood sex abuse on methylation of the 5HTT promoter region emerged for women. In addition, a significant effect of methylation at 5HTT on symptoms of ASPD emerged. Child sex abuse may create long-lasting changes in methylation of the promoter region of 5HTT in women. Furthermore, hypermethylation may be one mechanism linking childhood sex abuse to changes in risk for adult antisocial behavior in women. Better understanding of the methylome may prove critical in understanding the role of childhood environments on long-term psychiatric sequelae.

Impact of a Classroom Behavior Management Intervention on Teacher Risk Ratings for Student Behavior

Classroom behavior management interventions have been used successfully with drug prevention programs to prevent subsequent antisocial behavior and substance use among youth. This article presents results from implementation of the All Stars Challenge, a classroom-based behavior management component to a drug prevention program for fifth graders. Risk ratings for shyness and lack of awareness of social norms among high-risk students who received the All Stars Challenge were reduced compared with fifth graders who did not receive the intervention. In contrast, physical and social aggressivity among low-risk students who received the program increased when compared to similar control students.

Learning and thinking: A behavioral treatise on abuse and antisocial behavior in young criminal offenders.

INTRODUCTION Research studies focusing on the causes of juvenile delinquency have proposed that the structure of the family and the quality of parent-child relationships have important implications for the development of antisocial behavior in children, and may affect adult criminal behavior across the life course (Ganem & Agnew, 2007). These studies have primarily examined the major environmental predictors of juvenile crime: family, school, and peer variables, from the perspective of social control theory or social learning theory (Giordano et al., 2002). The central premise of social learning theory is that parents and other significant individuals in the environment serve as important models and play the major role in teaching children antisocial or criminal behavior. This article examines social learning theory as a theoretical context for understanding the effect that abuse and related experiences have on the quality of parent-child relationships from the perspective of behavioral analysis. While the incidence of juvenile delinquency remains relatively small in the general population (Poulin, Levitt, Young & Pappanfort, 1980), recent data indicates a growing trend in violent crimes committed by youth in the United States (Agnew, 2005; Fagan, 2005; Spillane-Grieco, 2000). For example, arrests of juveniles (under 18 years of age) for murder rose 3.4 percent in 2006 compared with 2005 arrest data; for robbery, arrests of juveniles increased 18.9 percent over the same 2-year period (United States Department of Justice, 2006). In addition to increased arrest for juveniles, placement in secure facilities has also been on the rise. This increase trend suggests the need to reexamine the causes of juvenile delinquency, and to identify those contextual variables and other systemic factors that impact family relationships and affect young offenders across the life span. This effort is especially important given the enormous cost of violence to society and the quality of life of those touched by crime. Researchers focusing on the causes of juvenile delinquency have argued that any effort to explore the relationship between parenthood and crime should focus on the nature of the quality of a parent-child relationship, rather than the simple presence or absence of parents. This is of particular importance in predicting the causes of juvenile delinquency, especially in intact-families who have a delinquent child, and in which children have been abused or neglected as part of their early experiences. Research on abused and neglected children has consistently commented that a disproportionate number of delinquent youth, particularly those charged with violent offences, were severely abused in childhood and throughout adolescence (Lewis, Mallouh, Webb, 1997). Not surprisingly, researchers investigating violent adult criminals report longstanding histories of severe abuse in childhood. Recent national statistics, for example, finds that 14.4% of all men in prison in the United States were abused as children and 36.7% of all women in prison were abused as children (US Department of Health and Human Services, Child Maltreatment 2006). Research investigating abuse and subsequent antisocial, aggressive acts has linked these factors to the quality of parent-child relationships throughout childhood and adolescence (Agnew, 2005; Farrington, 2002). This paper examines the association of childhood abuse and subsequent antisocial behavior from a multidimensional complex of systemic and family contextual factors. (For a discussion and overview of this model applied to abused children placed in foster and adoptive families see Prather, 2007.) This multidimensional complex builds on Akers' original social learning model of criminality (Akers, 1985; 1998) and provides the social context to identify and examine multiple environmental variables that affect parent-child relationships and impact young offenders, and provides a rationale for a behavioral treatment approach for delinquent youth and their parents. …

Early Trauma and Subsequent Antisocial Behavior in Adults

This study describes the prevalence of childhood trauma and maltreatment antecedents among 111 criminal offenders referred for forensic and mental health counseling. Sixtynine percent reported such antecedents. Seventy percent had Axis 1 mental health disorders including anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and substancerelated disorders. Many were comorbid. The implications of developmental psychopathology arising from childhood trauma and maltreatment for counselors who treat forensic clients are addressed. [Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention 8:294–303 (2009)]

Continuity, comorbidity and longitudinal associations between depression and antisocial behaviour in middle adolescence: A 2-year prospective follow-up study

The study investigated continuity, comorbidity and longitudinal associations between depression Beck depression inventory (RBDI) and antisocial behaviour Youth self-report (YSR) in middle adolescence. Data were used from a community sample of 2070 adolescents who participated in a 2-year prospective follow-up study. The results indicate that both depression and antisocial behaviour had considerable continuity, and concurrent comorbidity between these disorders was strong. In contrast to several previous studies, antisocial behaviour did not predict subsequent depression, but conversely, depression predicted subsequent antisocial behaviour among girls. Among boys history of depression seemed to protect from subsequent antisocial behaviour. Gender differences in longitudinal associations are discussed.

Maternal Cigarette Smoking During Pregnancy and Criminal/Deviant Behavior

A growing body of empirical literature has emerged examining the somewhat inconsistent relationship between maternal cigarette smoking (MCS) during pregnancy and children's subsequent antisocial behavior. To systematically assess what existing studies reveal regarding MCS as a criminogenic risk factor for offspring, the authors subjected this body of literature to a meta-analysis. The analysis reveals a statistically significant--yet rather small--overall mean "effect size" of the relationship between MCS and the likelihood children will engage in deviant/criminal behavior. In addition to being rather moderate in size, the MCS-crime/deviance relationship is sensitive to a number of methodological specifications across empirical studies--particularly those associated with sample characteristics. The implications of this modest, and somewhat unstable, relationship are discussed in terms of guidelines for future research on this subject and how existing theoretical perspectives may be integrated to explain the MCS-crime/deviance link.

Childhood Maltreatment, Subsequent Antisocial Behavior, and the Role of Monoamine Oxidase A Genotype

A functional promoter polymorphism in monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) has been implicated as a moderating factor in the relationship between childhood maltreatment and later adolescent and adult antisocial behavior. Despite wide interest in this hypothesis, results remain mixed from the few attempts at replication. Regression-based analyses were conducted to test for a genotype-environment interaction using self-reported physical abuse and MAOA genotype to predict later antisocial behavior and arrests for violence by participants in the National Youth Survey Family Study. We also examined the interaction using a measure of violent victimization. The analysis sample included 277 Caucasian male respondents, aged 11-15 in 1976, who provided buccal swab DNA samples and who were successfully genotyped for the variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) in the MAOA promoter using polymerase chain reaction. Maltreatment by a parent during adolescence was a risk factor for adolescent and adult antisocial and violence related behavioral problems. Tests for the main effect of MAOA and a MAOA-maltreatment interaction were nonsignificant. Similar results were obtained using the measure of adolescent violent victimization. Findings from this general population sample could not confirm the hypothesis that MAOA moderates the relationship between adolescent maltreatment and adolescent or adult antisocial behavior.