Heart Rate Reactivity, Neighborhood Disadvantage, and Antisocial Behavior

Abstract

This article examines whether heart rate stress reactivity interacts with neighborhood disadvantage to predict antisocial behavior. Antisocial behavior was assessed in a community sample of 445 males and females ( Mage = 11.92 years), using respondent and parent measures of antisocial behavior. Heart rate stress reactivity interacted with neighborhood disadvantage to predict parent-reported antisocial behavior. Specifically, the relationship between neighborhood disadvantage and antisocial behavior was stronger among children with lower heart rate reactivity. This study is the first to find that heart rate stress reactivity interacts with the neighborhood environment to predict antisocial behavior. Findings demonstrate the importance of examining biological factors in conjunction with the broader environmental context to understand the development of antisocial behavior.

The impact of social disadvantage on autonomic physiology of latinx adolescents: The role of environmental risks

“…Although prior research has found evidence for the detrimental effects of low neighborhood SES -lower education and greater unemployment -on ANS functioning (Mellman et al, 2018;Portnoy et al, 2020;Tawakol et al, 2019), our models yielded no findings over and above toxin exposure and family income. Notably, as none of these prior studies controlled for environmental toxins, it is possible that low neighborhood SES serves as a proxy for toxin exposure.…”

“…Thus, our findings together with past literature could suggest that ANS dysfunction is one plausible mechanism by which exposure to the context of poverty and environmental toxins increases the risk of physical and mental health problems, including metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and internalizing problems (Berntson, 2019; Koenig, 2020; Rodríguez‐Colón et al., 2015). This contributes to health disparities for people of color, who disproportionately experience racist medical practices including inequitable access to and quality of medical treatment (Portnoy et al., 2020). This inequality compounds the inordinate elevation of cardiovascular morbidity and psychopathology in marginalized racial and ethnic groups as the lack of treatment inevitably worsens health outcomes.…”

“…Likewise, different aspects of neighborhood disadvantage have also been associated with alterations in autonomic functioning. Specifically, research has found evidence linking objective measures of neighborhood SES with low heart rate reactivity in children (Portnoy et al, 2020), sympathetic dominance during sleep (Mellman et al, 2018), worsening pulmonary functioning (Lawrence et al, 2021), and increases in arterial inflammation suggesting chronic autonomic arousal (Osborne et al, 2020;Tawakol et al, 2019). In turn, heightened sympathetic and dampened parasympathetic activity may contribute to chronic inflammation, further increasing vulnerability to disease (Fagundes et al, 2013;Kraft & Kraft, 2021).…”

Biosocial Criminology: Moving Toward the Future

“…A second common theme is the need to examine interactions between biological, psychological, and social risk factors. Four of the studies found some evidence of interactions between biological and social risk factors (Cooke et al, 2020; Farrington, 2020; Fox et al, 2020; Portnoy et al, 2020). As demonstrated by these articles, neither biological, psychological, nor social risk factors alone are likely to explain the etiology of criminal behavior and related outcomes.…”

“…Farrington (2020) tests the interaction between resting heart rate and multiple psychosocial risk factors in predicting convictions and antisocial personality scores in males participating in the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development. Portnoy, Raine, Rudo-Hutt, Gao, and Monk (2020) also test a biosocial interaction, studying whether the interaction between heart rate reactivity and neighborhood disadvantage predicts antisocial behavior in children. Schwartz, Savolainen, Granger, and Calvi (2020) employ a slightly different approach from the other articles, treating delinquency as the independent variable, rather than the dependent variable.…”