High resting heart rate protects against childhood risk factors in predicting adult psychopathy

Abstract

Purpose Previous research has indicated that low resting heart rate (RHR), measured at age 18, predicts later psychopathy, and that high RHR acts as a protective factor in nullifying the influence of several psychosocial risk factors in predicting later antisocial and criminal outcomes. This paper aims to investigate high RHR as a protective factor against age 8–10 psychosocial risk factors in predicting psychopathy factors at age 48 (measured by the PCL:SV). Design/methodology/approach Data collected in the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development are analyzed. This is a prospective longitudinal study of 411 London males from age 8 to age 61. Findings This paper first reports the age 8–10 psychosocial risk factors that predict the interpersonal/affective Factor 1 and the lifestyle/antisocial Factor 2. Then interaction effects with high RHR are studied. The results indicate that high RHR acts as a protective factor against a convicted father and a depressed mother in predicting both psychopathy factors. It also protected against harsh discipline, large family size, low verbal IQ, high hyperactivity, poor parental supervision and a high delinquency-rate school in predicting one of these psychopathy factors, and against a convicted mother in a sensitivity analysis. Originality/value This is the first ever longitudinal study showing that high RHR acts as a protective factor in the prediction of psychopathy. The replicated results with different antisocial outcomes show that more research is warranted on the protective effects of high RHR.

Self-reported antisocial behaviour of 10-year-old boys in Zhuhai (China) versus Pittsburgh (USA)

“…It is, of course, desirable that this type of cross-national comparative research should be replicated, preferably with large representative samples and using the same measuring instruments. It is also important to study risk factors for antisocial behaviour (Farrington and Aguilar-Carceles, 2023; Jackson, 2017; Juni, 2014; McGauran et al , 2019), including very early risk factors (Zara et al , 2023) and biological risk factors (Bergstrom and Farrington, 2018; Farrington and Bergstrom, 2021). Information about differences in risk factors might help to explain differences in prevalence and frequency between Chinese and American children.…”

Being unwanted and other very early predictors of adult psychopathy

“…Hence, they decided to dichotomise them into high (10 or more) versus low (0-9) PCL:SV scores and found that high scorers were qualitatively different from low scorers. They also dichotomised into high F1-PP (3þ) and high F2-PB (5þ) scores; dichotomised variables permit an easy and very understandable method of studying how predictors influence outcomes (Farrington and Bergstrøm, 2021).…”

“…This is an important gap to address, as the study of these factors may have implications for how we understand the development of psychopathy, bridging our knowledge between biological, psychological and social factors. Farrington and Bergstrøm (2021) investigated the extent to which early risk factors, measured at ages 8-10, could predict psychopathy in adulthood, at age 48. They investigated the risk factors which were judged to be most important in the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development (CSDD).…”

“…Debate is still ongoing as to how psychopathy develops and how it is affected by early life events, as described in a vast literature (Beaver et al , 2012; Bergstrøm and Farrington, 2018; Boduszek et al , 2019; Farrington and Bergstrøm, 2018, 2021; Glenn, 2018; Jackson and Beaver, 2016; Thomson, 2019; Zara and Farrington, 2016), but there is a clear research gap when it comes to the potential role of obstetric and early infancy factors (Thomson, 2019). This is an important gap to address, as the study of these factors may have implications for how we understand the development of psychopathy, bridging our knowledge between biological, psychological and social factors.…”

Stability of psychopathy in a prospective longitudinal study: Results from the Cambridge Study in delinquent development

“…This approach is in line with Farrington and Loeber (2000). Another justification for the dichotomization of psychopathy scores follows from the fact that they are nonlinearly related to offending and to violence (see, e.g., Farrington & Bergstrom, 2018, 2021a), suggesting that the minority of high scorers are qualitatively different from the majority of low scorers. To assess the stability of psychopathy, odds ratios (OR) were calculated between each pair of successive time points.…”