Personality traits are linked to crime among men and women: Evidence from a birth cohort.

Is there a relationship between personality and criminal behavior? We addressed this question in a representative birth cohort of 862 male and female 18-yr-olds. Personality was assessed with the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ). The MPQ measures 10 relatively independent personality traits and was not designed to identify offenders. Delinquency was assessed via 3 data sources: self-reports, informant reports, and official records. Variable-centered analyses revealed that MPQ scales indexing negative emotionality and behavioral constraint were consistent predictors of delinquency across the 3 data sources. Person-centered analyses revealed that youths abstaining from delinquency were uniquely characterized by low interpersonal potency. Youths involved in extensive delinquency were uniquely characterized by feelings of alienation, lack of social closeness and risk taking. Advances in understanding criminal behavior can be made through research that places the personality-delinquency link in a developmental context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Physical Maltreatment Victim to Antisocial Child: Evidence of an Environmentally Mediated Process.

The well-documented finding that child physical maltreatment predicts later antisocial behavior has at least 2 explanations: (a) Physical maltreatment causes antisocial behavior, and (b) genetic factors transmitted from parents to children influence the likelihood that parents will be abusive and that children will engage in antisocial behavior. The authors tested these hypotheses in the representative Environmental-Risk cohort of 1,116 twin pairs and their families, who were assessed when the twins were 5 and 7 years old. Mothers reported on children's experience of physical maltreatment, and mothers and teachers reported on children's antisocial behavior. The findings support the hypothesis that physical maltreatment plays a causal role in the development of children's antisocial behavior and that preventing maltreatment can prevent its violent sequelae. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Confirmation of the Dominant Defect Mechanism in Amorphous In–Zn–O Through the Application of In Situ Brouwer Analysis

The dominant point defect mechanism of amorphous (a‐) indium zinc oxide (IZO) was probed through in situ electrical characterization of sputtered a‐IZO thin films in response to changes in oxygen partial pressure (pO) at 300C. The results yielded a power law dependence of conductivity (σ) versus pO of ～?1/6. This experimental method, known as Brouwer analysis, confirms doubly‐charged oxygen vacancies as the dominant defect species in a‐IZO. The success of this study suggests that Brouwer analysis is a viable method for studying the defect mechanisms of amorphous oxides.     

The (artefactual) remission of reading disability: Psychometric lessons in the study of stability and change in behavioral development.

Patterns of reading disability were examined in 2 longitudinal studies. The major findings were (a) that on the basis of the observed data, remission of reading disability was relatively common with up to 37% of reading-disabled children showing remission of this disability within a 2-year period, and (b) when the data were analyzed with a latent Markov model that took account of measurement errors in test scores, the estimated true rate of remission of reading disability was between 15% and 19% over a 2-year period. The presence of measurement error in reading disability classifications may lead to an inflated and misleading impression of the rate of remission of these problems. General implications of these findings for interpreting patterns of stability and change in longitudinal developmental data were discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Longitudinal evidence that psychopathy scores in early adolescence predict adult psychopathy.

This study examined the relation between psychopathy assessed at age 13 by using the mother-reported Childhood Psychopathy Scale (D. R. Lynam, 1997) and psychopathy assessed at age 24 by using the interviewer-rated Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV; S. D. Hart, D. N. Cox, & R. D. Hare, 1995). Data from over 250 participants of the middle sample of the Pittsburgh Youth Study were used to examine this relation; approximately 9% of the sample met criteria for a possible PCL:SV diagnosis. Despite the long time lag, different sources, and different methods, psychopathy from early adolescence into young adulthood was moderately stable (r=.31). The relation was present for the PCL:SV total and facet scores, was not moderated by initial risk status or initial psychopathy level, and held even after controlling for other age 13 variables. Diagnostic stability was somewhat lower. Both specificity and negative predictive power were good, and sensitivity was adequate, but positive predictive power was poor. This constitutes the first demonstration of the relative stability of psychopathy from adolescence into adulthood and provides evidence for the incremental utility of the adolescent psychopathy construct. Implications and future directions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A prospective replication of the protective effects of IQ in subjects at high risk for juvenile delinquency.

The purpose of the study was to test the replicability of a protective effect of high IQ against criminality. Support has been found in prior studies for the hypotheses that Ss at high risk would have an elevated risk of serious criminal involvement, that seriously criminal Ss would have a lower mean IQ score than noncriminal Ss, and that Ss at high risk who had not become involved in serious criminal behavior would have the highest IQs. This report tests these hypotheses in a prospective design. Subjects were 1,037 members of a longitudinal investigation of a New Zealand birth cohort. IQs were examined for male and female Ss who were divided into 4 groups formed on the basis of risk status at age 5 years and delinquency outcome at ages 13 and 15. Analyses were conducted with and without mild delinquents excluded from the nondelinquent groups. We found that male and female delinquents showed significantly lower IQ scores than nondelinquents. By varying S selection procedures, we also found that a very high IQ may help boys, even those at risk, to stay free of delinquency altogether. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Is there an association between lateral preference and delinquent behavior?

Results of recent research suggests an association between left lateral preference and delinquent behavior. In this study the lateral preferences of 881 seven-year-old children were determined using behavioral indicators of hand and foot use. Mixed-handedness was associated with parent-reported problem behavior scores and self-reported delinquency scores at ages 13 and 15. However, preference for left hand and foot use was found to be unrelated to the delinquency measures. The distribution of lateral preferences in an identified delinquent group was not significantly different from the distribution in the sample remainder. The lack of an association between left preference and delinquency may be accounted for by an increased cultural acceptance of individual preference. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Facial expressions of emotion and psychopathology in adolescent boys.

On the basis of the widespread belief that emotions underpin psychological adjustment, the authors tested 3 predicted relations between externalizing problems and anger, internalizing problems and fear and sadness, and the absence of externalizing problems and social–moral emotion (embarrassment). Seventy adolescent boys were classified into 1 of 4 comparison groups on the basis of teacher reports using a behavior problem checklist: internalizers, externalizers, mixed (both internalizers and externalizers), and nondisordered boys. The authors coded the facial expressions of emotion shown by the boys during a structured social interaction. Results supported the 3 hypotheses: (a) Externalizing adolescents showed increased facial expressions of anger, (b) on 1 measure internalizing adolescents showed increased facial expressions of fear, and (c) the absence of externalizing problems (or nondisordered classification) was related to increased displays of embarrassment. Discussion focused on the relations of these findings to hypotheses concerning the role of impulse control in antisocial behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender differences in partner violence in a birth cohort of 21-year-olds: Bridging the gap between clinical and epidemiological approaches.

This study describes partner violence in a representative sample of young adults. Physical violence perpetration was reported by 37.2% of women and 21.8% of men. Correlates of involvement in severe physical violence differed by gender. Severe physical violence was more strongly associated with unemployment, low educational attainment, few social support resources, polydrug use, antisocial personality disorder symptoms, depression symptoms, and violence toward strangers for men than for women. Women who were victims of severe physical violence were more likely than men who were victims to experience symptoms of anxiety. The findings converge with community studies showing that more women than men are physically violent toward a partner and with clinical studies highlighting violence perpetrated against women by men with deviant characteristics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Schools without curricula: Evaluation of some early childhood programs.

Conducted a formative and summative evaluation of 6 half-day early childhood programs serving 3- and 4-yr-olds and taught by a total of 15 teachers. The frequency and type of occurrence of events in the programs in the areas of classroom activities and groupings, subjects and materials of instruction, and teacher-expressive behavior, were assessed, along with the relevance of goals and activities to their programs. A questionnaire on goals and methods, the Early Childhood Inventories, Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, and Raven Progressive Matrices were administered. The teachers showed little verbal agreement on goals and methods. However, within each program there was a high degree of observed behavioral agreement among the teachers. Test scores did not reflect the observed differences among the programs. It is argued that a process approach to evaluation is a more fruitful procedure than the more traditional experimental model which focuses on evaluation of outcome. (French summary) (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)