Longitudinal Associations Between Primary and Secondary Psychopathic Traits, Delinquency, and Current Dating Status in Adolescence

Davis, Adam C.; Brittain, Heather; Arnocky, Steven; Vaillancourt, Tracy

doi:10.1177/14747049211068670

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 130 publications

(256 reference statements)

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“…Further, although we controlled for age and gender, our data do not cover childhood, pre-adolescence, or late adolescence, and therefore do not present an overall picture of development across time or across genders. Lastly, although our indirect effects imply a developmental path, our cross-sectional data precludes such a conclusion, and we again call for longitudinal and/or experimental research across childhood and adolescence to test multiple theoretically based hypotheses more directly, including the use of cross-lagged models (Davis et al, 2022). Moreover, we recognize there are alternative, statistically equivalent models possible with our cross-sectional data (e.g., socially adaptive outcomes indirectly linking social environments to psychopathic traits).…”

Section: Limitations and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 90%

Adolescent psychopathic traits and adverse environments: Associations with socially adaptive outcomes

Brazil,

Farrell,

Boer

et al. 2024

Dev Psychopathol

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Researchers have suggested that psychopathic traits among adults may be, at least in part, an adaptive and/or a learned response for securing socially adaptive outcomes in adverse environments, but there is a lack of developmental evidence supporting this hypothesis among adolescents. Therefore, we examined the indirect links from self-perceived adverse environments (parental neglect, socioeconomic status, school competition, neighborhood violence) to evolutionarily relevant social outcomes (social power, dating behavior) through psychopathic traits. A community sample of 396 adolescents completed measures for the study (Mage = 14.64, SD = 1.52). As predicted, there were significant indirect effects from higher levels of parental neglect, school competition, and neighborhood violence to both forms of socially adaptive outcomes through psychopathic traits, but unexpectedly, there were no indirect effects with socioeconomic status. There were also direct effects between environment and socially adaptive outcomes. Results support the hypothesis that psychopathic traits may be, in part, an adaptive and/or learned response to cues from adverse social environments as a means to acquire evolutionarily relevant social outcomes. Interventions could be designed to target the adverse social issues that might be facilitating the development of psychopathy and should be sensitive to the social outcomes adolescents may acquire from these traits.

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Section: Limitations and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 90%