Troubled or Traumatized Youth? The Relations Between Psychopathy, Violence Exposure, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, and Antisocial Behavior Among Juvenile Offenders

Abstract

The current study examined how psychopathy, exposure to violence, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are associated with antisocial behavior among 1,354 serious delinquent adolescents from the Pathways to Desistance study. Results showed that psychopathy, violence exposure, and PTSD are independently linked to self-reported involvement of delinquency, even after controlling for respondents’ demographic characteristics. However, the effect of PTSD on antisocial behavior was small. Differential associations were observed between the 2 factors of psychopathy, interpersonal/affective and social deviance, and PTSD symptoms. Specifically, the effect of social deviance characteristics on delinquency was above and beyond that of interpersonal/affective features. In addition, exposure to violence as a victim or witness were uniquely associated with increased delinquent behavior. Findings clarified the relations among psychopathy, violence exposure, PTSD, and antisocial behavior, and highlighted the differential links between psychopathy factors and delinquency.

Moderating role of social support in the relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder and antisocial behavior in adolescents after the Ya'an earthquake

“…The current study found that all four PTSD symptom clusters were positively correlated with antisocial behavior, consistent with previous studies, and confirms that PTSD is a risk factor for antisocial behavior (Becker & Kerig, ; Taft et al, ; Tsang, ).…”

“…According to the social information processing modal of aggressive behavior (Holtzworth‐Munroe, ), the cognitive biases and unreasonable beliefs of individuals with strong symptoms of PTSD (i.e., full of threats and hostility toward their environment) are the primary causes of their aggressive behaviors among trauma survivors (Taft, Creech, & Kachadourian, ). A typical negative perception of people with PTSD is the inability to recognize that their traumatic event was a transient event that occurred in specific circumstances; rather, they generalize their feelings of loss of control and insecurity associated with the event into everyday life, which can lead to increased antisocial behavior (Tsang, ; Zhou & Wu, ).…”

“…Empirical studies have also found that PTSD symptoms can induce or exacerbate antisocial behavior (Ecker & Kerig, 2011; Fontana & Rosenheck, ; Taft, Vogt, Marshall, Panuzio, & Niles, ; Tsang, ). However, many other studies have failed to find strong relationships between PTSD and antisocial behavior (e.g., Friel, White, & Hull, ; Shin, Rosen, Greenbaum, & Jain, ; Sullivan & Elbogen, ).…”

Caracterización psicosocial y criminológica de adolescentes chilenos con prácticas abusivas sexuales

“…Por otro lado, un hecho llamativo emerge al contrastar los resultados de esta dimensión con los estudios internacionales, debido a que las tasas de victimización encontradas en ambos grupos tienden a ser superiores a las reportadas en investigaciones realizadas en España, Estados Unidos y Canadá (Benedicto et al, 2017;Fanniff & Kolko, 2012;Leroux et al, 2016). De este modo, se refuerza la evidencia que indica una estrecha relación entre experiencias de esta naturaleza y posibles problemas de comportamiento sexual en edades posteriores (Barra et al, 2017;Boonmann et al, 2016;Dillard & Beaujolais, 2019;Malvaso et al, 2020;Tsang, 2017;Yoder & Precht, 2020).…”

Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version psychometric properties in an Item Response Theory polytomous model

“…The development of more reliable measures to assess psychopathic traits in young people has shown that these same traits tend to be more present in individuals with chronic criminal trajectories (McCuish, Corrado, Lussier, & Hart, 2014;Tsang, 2018), as well as other risk factors (Chauhan et al, 2014). In addition, cognitive mediating aspects between scoring and future violent behavior also need to be better understood Kahn, Ermer, Salovey, & Kiehl, 2016;Walters & DeLisi, 2015).…”