The relation between salivary cortisol, callous‐unemotional traits, and conduct problems in an adolescent non‐referred sample

Abstract

The current findings build upon recent research in suggesting that low cortisol may be a biological marker for male CU traits.

Personality factors and psychopathy, alexithymia and stress

“…For example, psychopathic personality traits have been associated with blunted stress reactivity (Loney et al, 2006;O'Leary et al, 2007). Additionally, the most distinctive characteristic of a subgroup of psychopaths (i.e., emotionally stable) sampled from a prison population was their immunity to negative events (i.e., low Stress Reaction scores) (Hicks et al, 2004).…”

Salivary testosterone and cortisol are jointly related to pro-environmental behavior in men

“…For example, lower cortisol has been shown to be associated with disruptive behavior disorder in boys (Dorn et al, 2009), callousness in male adolescents (Loney, Butler, Lima, Counts, & Eckel, 2006), as well as aggressive behavior (Böhnke, Bertsch, Kruk, & Naumann, 2010;van der Meij et al, 2015) and psychopathic traits (Cima, Smeets, & Jelicic, 2008;Holi, Auvinen-Lintunen, Lindberg, Tani, & Virkkunen, 2006) in adults. With regard to prosocial and related behaviors, evidence is scarce but positive associations have been reported for cortisol and the personality trait agreeableness (Tops, Boksem, Wester, Lorist, & Meijman, 2006;Vickers, Hervig, Poth, & Hackney, 1995), social affiliative behavior in children (Tennes, Kreye, Avitable, & Wells, 1986), quality of social relationships in adolescent girls (Booth, Granger, & Shirtcliff, 2008), and relationship functioning in mothers (Adam & Gunnar, 2001).…”

Adolescent Conduct Disorder and Interpersonal Callousness as Predictors of Psychopathy in Young Adults

“…Smith and colleagues (1993) found no relationship between dopamine receptor gene marker frequencies and PCL-R measures of psychopathy in a sample of substance-abusing inmates. One recent study examined the relationship between cortisol and CU traits in a sample of nonreferred adolescent boys and girls (Loney, Butler, Lima, Counts, & Eckel, 2005). For boys, but not girls, CU traits were linked to cortisol levels independently of the level of conduct problems (Loney et al, 2005).…”