Although a low resting heart rate is considered the best-replicated biological correlate of antisocial behavior, the mechanism underlying this relationship remains largely unknown. Sensation-seeking and fearlessness theories have been proposed to explain this relationship, although little empirical research has been conducted to test these theories. This study addressed this limitation by examining the relationship between heart rate and antisocial behavior in a community sample of 335 adolescent boys. Heart rate was measured during a series of cognitive, stress, and rest tasks. Participants also completed self-report measures of state fear, impulsive sensation seeking, and both aggressive and nonaggressive forms of antisocial behavior. As expected, increased levels of aggression and nonviolent delinquency were associated with a low heart rate. Impulsive sensation seeking, but not fearlessness, significantly mediated the association between heart rate and aggression. This study is the first to show that impulsive sensation seeking partly underlies the relationship between aggression and heart rate, and it is one of the few to examine the mechanism of action linking heart rate to antisocial behavior. Findings at a theoretical level highlight the role of impulsive sensation seeking in understanding antisocial behavior and at an intervention level suggest it as a potential target for behavioral change.Autonomic nervous system activity has long been examined in relation to psychopathy, aggression, and antisocial behavior (e.g., Davies and Maliphant, 1971;Hare, 1968). Psychophysiological indices of autonomic activity, which are noninvasive to record and capture nearly immediate physiological changes in response to external stimuli, include skin conductance, heart rate, and skin-potential response. Of these measures, a low resting heart rate is considered the best-replicated biological correlate of antisocial behavior in children and adolescents (Lorber, 2004;Ortiz and Raine, 2004). One meta-analysis *
Although the assessment of empathy has moved from general empathy to differentiating between cognitive and affective empathy, no instruments have assessed somatic (motor) empathy, and none have separated positive from negative affect empathy. The main objective of this study was to develop a 30-item self-report cognitive, affective, and somatic empathy scale (CASES) with positive and negative affect components for use with children and adolescents. A community sample of 428 male and female 11-year-olds completed the CASES together with validity questionnaires and were assessed on IQ. Caregivers reported on callous-unemotional traits, behavior problems, social adversity, and paternal criminality. Confirmatory factor analysis provided support for a 3-factor cognitive-affective-somatic structure of CASES and support for a broader 6-factor model of empathy. Configural and metric factor invariance across genders was established. Good internal consistency was obtained for the main scales. Criterion validity was established by lower empathy in callous-unemotional children. Incremental and predictive validity was documented by empathy at baseline predicting 12 months later to callous-unemotional traits after controlling for baseline callous-unemotional traits. Discriminant validity was documented by empathy being unrelated to internalizing behavior problems and differentially related to proactive and reactive forms of aggression. Construct validity was documented by lower empathy being associated with lower IQ, being male, more externalizing behavior problems, and criminality in the biological parent. Results provide initial support for a brief but multidimensional empathy scale with good sampling and face validity that can be used with children and adolescents.
The psychobiology of stress involves two major components, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the autonomic nervous system (ANS). Research has revealed the association between behavior problems and the psychobiology of stress, yet findings are inconsistent and few studies have addressed the moderate correlations between behavior problems. This study examines the individual and interactive effects of HPA and ANS on child behavior problems while taking into account the comorbidity of externalizing and internalizing problems. Four saliva samples were collected from each participant in a community sample (N = 429; aged 11-12 years; 50.49 % male), which were assayed for cortisol (HPA) and alpha-amylase, sAA (ANS). Children's behavior problems were assessed using parent-report and self-report versions of the Child Behavior Checklist. Latent variables were constructed to represent trait-like individual differences in cortisol and sAA. Low levels of HPA axis activity were associated with higher levels of both externalizing and internalizing problems, but only among children with low ANS arousal. The association between externalizing and internalizing problems diminished to non-significant after taking into account the influence of HPA axis activity and ANS arousal, which suggests that the psychobiology of stress explains a fair proportion of comorbidity of behavior problems. The findings support that interaction between HPA axis and ANS functioning has potential to clarify prior mixed findings and advance our understanding of the child behavior problems.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.