In this study, we assessed the cross-cultural generalizability of the Reactive-Proactive Aggression Questionnaire (RPQ) and tested the hypotheses that boys show higher levels of proactive aggression with increasing age and that a two-factor (reactive-proactive) structure will be observed in an East Asian population. We administered the RPQ to 5,615 male and female 11- to 15-year-old schoolchildren. CFA demonstrated a good fit of the two-factor reactive-proactive model. Proactive aggression increased significantly with age in boys but not girls, whereas reactive aggression showed no gender difference and only a minimal age increase. Results suggest the presence of meaningful differences between these aggression subtypes and the generalizability of the RPQ in an East Asian population.

While persuasive evidence has accumulated over the past 15 years documenting an association between schizophrenia and violence, there are 3 unresolved issues. First, does a downward extension of this relationship exist at the nonclinical level with respect to schizotypal personality and aggression in children? Second, is aggression more associated with impulsive reactive aggression or with more planned proactive aggression. Third and importantly, does peer victimization mediate the relationship between schizotypy and aggression? A further aim of this cross-sectional study was to examine the utility of a new child self-report measure of schizotypal personality. These issues were examined in a sample of 3804 schoolchildren assessed on schizotypy using the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Child (SPQ-C), reactive-proactive aggression, and peer victimization. A confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the 3-factor structure (cognitive-perceptual, interpersonal, and disorganized) of the SPQ-C. Schizotypy was positively associated with total aggression and reactive aggression but not with proactive aggression. Peer victimization was found to significantly mediate the schizotypy-aggression relationship, accounting for 58.9% of the association. Results are broadly consistent with the hypothesis that schizotypal features elicit victimization from other children, which in turn predisposes to reactive retaliatory aggression. Findings are to the authors' knowledge the first to document any mediator of the schizotypy-aggression relationship and have potential treatment implications for violence reduction in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. This study also provides initial evidence for the factorial and discriminant validity of a brief and simple measure of schizotypal personality in children as young as 8 years.

Although low resting heart rate has been viewed as a well-replicated biological correlate of child and adolescent antisocial behavior, little is known about how it interacts with psychosocial adversity in predisposing to both reactive-proactive aggression and psychopathy, and whether this relationship generalizes to an East Asian population. This study tests the hypothesis that low resting heart rate will be associated with aggression and psychopathic traits, and that heart rate will interact with adversity in predisposing to these antisocial traits. Resting heart rate was assessed in 334 Hong Kong male and female schoolchildren aged 11-17 years. A social adversity index was calculated from a psychosocial interview of the parent, while parents assessed their children on the Reactive-Proactive Aggression Questionnaire and the Antisocial Personality Screening Device. Low resting heart rate was significantly associated with higher proactive aggression, impulsive features of psychopathy, and total child psychopathy. Low resting heart rate interacted with high psychosocial adversity in explaining higher reactive (but not proactive) aggression, as well as impulsive psychopathy. These findings provide support for a biosocial perspective of reactive aggression and impulsive psychopathy, and document low resting heart rate as a robust correlate of both childhood impulsive psychopathic behavior and proactive aggression. To our knowledge, this study is the first to document low resting heart rate as a correlate of child psychopathy and the second to establish low heart rate as a risk factor of antisocial behavior in an East Asian population. The findings provide further evidence for both low resting heart rate as a potential biomarker for childhood psychopathic and aggressive behavior, and also a biosocial perspective on childhood antisocial behavior.

This cross-sectional study examined the nature of child and adolescent psychopathy using the Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD) in 3,675 schoolchildren (ages 11-16) in Hong Kong, China. A confirmatory factor analysis observed a good fit for the three-factor model (callous-unemotional, impulsivity, narcissism) of APSD, with boys scoring higher than girls on narcissism and callous-unemotional traits. Modest construct validity was found with regard to expected relationships with internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. The previously observed higher scores on callous-unemotional traits in boys at older ages were replicated. Findings suggest that child psychopathy may be applicable in a non-Western culture, although the callous-unemotional factor may have a different meaning in China.

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