Offenders in emerging adulthood: School maladjustment, childhood adversities, and prediction of aggressive antisocial behaviors.

Abstract

Early psychosocial adversities and maladjustment, such as childhood maltreatment and school adjustment problems, have been linked to an increased risk of aggressive antisocial behaviors. Yet, clinical studies of subjects at the highest risk of persistence in such behaviors are rare, especially during the life-changing transition years of emerging adulthood. This study describes early predictors of aggressive antisocial behaviors in a large, nationally representative cohort of Swedish, male violent offenders in emerging adulthood (age range = 18-25 years; N = 270). First, data on psychosocial background characteristics and aggressive antisocial behaviors (including age at onset) are provided. Second, early predictors of aggressive antisocial behaviors are tested in bivariate and multivariate interactive models. The offenders demonstrated a diversity of early onset adversities and disruptive behaviors, in line with established risk factors for subsequent criminality and adverse outcomes in a variety of life domains. Severe school adjustment problems, especially bullying others and early onset truancy, were important and interrelated predictors of aggressive antisocial behaviors over the lifetime, whereas childhood adversities such as parental substance or alcohol abuse and repeated exposure to violence at home during childhood were interrelated predictors of aggressive antisocial behaviors, albeit with less statistical importance. The findings stress the importance of early identification of individuals in the risk zone of developing severe and persistent aggressive antisocial behaviors and of early preventive interventions directed toward families with high-risk profiles. The findings also provide initial guidelines on which psychosocial background risk factors that need to be considered first-hand in early interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record

Effects of creativity on social and behavioral adjustment in 7‐ to 11‐year‐old children

“…Children with an overall score from 0 to 9 are termed "stable," while those with a score of 10-19 are termed "unsettled" and those with a score of 20 or more are called "maladjusted." In our sample, at age 7, 67.3% of children were categorized as stable at baseline, 21.2% as above the threshold for unsettled (a score of [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19], and 11.4% as above the threshold for maladjusted (a score of 20 or more). Due to the possibility of left-censoring, whereby participants could enter the study already showing signs of social or behavioral instability or maladjustment which could have affected their engagement in creative activities, we just worked with data from children who were identified as stable at baseline, providing a final sample of 7558 participants.…”

Aggressive Antisocial Behaviors Are Related to Character Maturity in Young Swedish Violent Offenders Independent of ADHD

“…Two hundred seventy male offenders gave informed consent among 380 possible participants, resulting in a 71% response rate. A more detailed presentation of this project is given by Wallinius and coauthors (25). …”

Personality and Cognitive Functions in Violent Offenders – Implications of Character Maturity?

“…All male inmates aged 18-25 were invited to participate in the study; inmates with insufficient language skills and those who were relocated before the data could be safely collected were excluded. The participation rate was 71% of all who met inclusion criteria, and in-depth descriptions of the total DAABS cohort (n = 269) are available in previous publications (e.g., Wallinius et al, 2016;Billstedt et al, 2017;Hofvander et al, 2017). In the total DAABS cohort, the majority of the offenders had a non-sexual violent history, with only n = 31 offenders reporting an offense history of sexual offenses .…”