Understanding adolescent psychopathic traits from early risk and protective factors: Relations among inhibitory control, maternal sensitivity, and attachment representation

Abstract

Psychopathic traits reflect deficits in behavioral, affective, and interpersonal functioning (Cooke & Michie, 2001). Children with poor inhibitory control may display these traits. Maternal sensitivity and attachment have been implicated in psychopathic traits, but whether they may reduce the likelihood of psychopathic trait expression in adolescence for uninhibited children is largely unknown. The current study attempted to shed light on this issue. Data came from 957 adolescents, followed from 54 months through 15 years. Findings demonstrated that maternal sensitivity was associated with a reduced likelihood of psychopathic traits for males with low inhibitory control. For females, secure attachment mediated the interaction of sensitivity and inhibitory control to psychopathic traits. The current study offers insight into the temperamental traits, parenting, and relational processes involved in psychopathic trait expression during adolescence.

Parental Warmth and Hostility and the Development of Psychopathic Behaviors: A Longitudinal Study of Young Offenders

“…Moreover, according to our findings, the age of the respondent did not moderate the relationship between parental behaviors and psychopathic traits suggesting that parental warmth and hostility may shape the levels of selfreported psychopathic traits at the age 14 and 19 similarly. The data emphasize thus the continued importance of parental behaviors during adolescence despite demands for autonomy and independence (Buck, 2015;Hill et al, 2007). This study expands the literature by showing that the effects of parenting are not restricted to early and middle childhood but matter at later developmental stages (Buck, 2015;Gardner et al, 2019).…”

“…The data emphasize thus the continued importance of parental behaviors during adolescence despite demands for autonomy and independence (Buck, 2015;Hill et al, 2007). This study expands the literature by showing that the effects of parenting are not restricted to early and middle childhood but matter at later developmental stages (Buck, 2015;Gardner et al, 2019). Both early and later warmth seem to be important in lowering self-reported psychopathic traits of adolescents.…”

“…Positive parenting such as warmth is suggested to prevent from psychopathic-like behavior in childhood (Hawes et al, 2011;Pardini et al, 2007), while the outcomes of childhood negative parenting may be detected even in adolescence and young adulthood through psychopathic behavior (Goulter et al, 2020;Waller et al, 2015). Parental warmth and hostility during adolescence are less studied, although effects of parenting are suggested to be equally strong in different developmental stages in early, middle and late childhood (Gardner et al, 2019), and parental behaviors associate with the levels of psychopathic traits also in adolescence (Buck, 2015;Bisby et al, 2017). However, there is a lack of knowledge, how coexistent maternal and paternal warmth and hostility affect the levels of psychopathic traits-including interpersonal, behavioral and affective domains-over time of adolescents who are already on an offending path.…”

“…Along with negative parenting and low parental warmth, positive parenting and high parental warmth have also been found to link to psychopathic-like behavior in early and late adolescence. For example, parental involvement and positive reinforcement associate with reduction in CU traits over time (Hawes et al, 2011;Pardini et al, 2007), and maternal sensitivity is considered to protect boys against psychopathic traits across toddlerhood to adolescence, especially when the sensitivity is continuous (Buck, 2015). Besides CU traits, parental warmth may also prevent antisocial behavior among young people with elevated CU traits (Pasalich et al, 2011;Ray et al, 2017).…”

Conduct problems in youth and the RDoC approach: A developmental, evolutionary-based view

“…Further, negative parenting styles such as poor parental monitoring, inconsistent discipline, and physical punishment (Pardini et al, 2007), as well as problems with parentchild communication in early adolescence, are prospectively related to the development of CD and psychopathic features (Pardini & Loeber, 2008). A reanalysis of the NICHD study of early child care (Buck, 2015) found that secure attachment mediated the interaction between maternal sensitivity and inhibitory control (but only for female participants). Sensitive parenting, assessed from 54 months to age 15, predicted secure attachment at age 15 in girls who were low on inhibitory control at 54 months.…”