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Psychopathic traits, pubertal timing, & mental health functioning in justice-involved adolescents
Personality and Individual Differences 145 (2019) 52–57
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Personality and Individual Differences journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/paid
Psychopathic traits, pubertal timing, & mental health functioning in justiceinvolved adolescents
T
Naomi Sadeha, , Nadia Bounouaa, Shabnam Javdanib ⁎
a b
University of Delaware, Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, 105 The Green, Newark, DE 19716, USA New York University, Department of Applied Psychology, 246 Green Street, New York, NY 10003, USA
ARTICLE INFO
ABSTRACT
Keywords: Triarchic Psychopathy Measure Boldness Disinhibition Meanness Substance use Anger
Although psychopathic traits and pubertal timing have garnered a great deal of attention as potent risk factors for antisocial trajectories, very little research has examined how these processes may be related. We investigated whether psychopathic traits were related to deviations in pubertal onset in a clinically-relevant sample of youth detained in juvenile detention facilities. One-hundred and thirty-seven adolescents (ages 12–17) completed surveys of pubertal timing, psychopathic traits, and mental health functioning. As predicted, psychopathic traits were found to be associated with pubertal timing, and the psychopathy facets evidenced differential associations with the onset of puberty. Trait disinhibition was associated with relatively earlier pubertal timing, whereas trait boldness appeared to confer protection against early pubertal onset in this sample. Symptoms of alcohol/substance use and anger/irritability were positively related to psychopathic traits, but only among youth who reported average-/late-pubertal development. These findings implicate psychopathic personality traits as individual difference variables that may influence the onset of pubertal timing and interact with pubertal timing to place justice-involved youth at risk for poor mental health.
1. Introduction Youth who manifest high levels of psychopathic traits are at higher risk for delinquency, recidivism, and aggressive behavior (Asscher et al., 2011). The triarchic model of psychopathy proposed by Patrick and colleagues (Patrick & Drislane, 2015) parses psychopathic traits into three facets that differ in their core features and neurobiological bases. The boldness facet reflects the temperamental fearlessness, lack of anxiety, resilience to psychopathological distress, and interpersonal dominance that is characteristic of psychopathy (Fowles, 1980; Lykken, 1957). The callous and unemotional features of psychopathy (e.g., lack of empathy, callous-aggression) are captured by the meanness facet, and the disinhibition facet reflects the lack of inhibitory control that is core to psychopathy as well as impulsive conduct problems and externalizing disorders (Patrick & Drislane, 2015). In addition to showing distinct behavioral correlates, these facets are thought to be grounded in different neurobiological systems. Disinhibition, for instance, corresponds to behavioral and neurobiological abnormalities in the functioning of inhibitory control systems (e.g., prefrontal executive regions), necessary to restrain behavioral impulses (Patrick, Durbin, & Moser, 2012), whereas the boldness facet corresponds to behavioral and neurobiological systems that regulate threat sensitivity (e.g., amygdala activation), with ⁎
individuals scoring higher on boldness presumably showing lower levels of defensive reactivity in the face of threat (Esteller, Poy, & Moltó, 2016). The current study investigated associations between the triarchic model of psychopathic traits and another well-established risk factor for delinquency and antisocial behavior, pubertal timing (Burt, McGue, DeMarte, Krueger, & Iacono, 2006). 1.1. Psychopathy and puberty Pubertal timing has long been of interest to investigators studying delinquency and antisocial behavior in adolescence, and much empirical work has been done on this topic to date (Ullsperger & Nikolas, 2017). A recent meta-analysis of 134 samples that examined the association between pubertal timing (defined in relation to same-age, and same-sex peers) and psychopathology found early pubertal timing was correlated with higher levels of externalizing problems generally (d = 0.22) and antisocial behavior in particular (d = 0.17) (Ullsperger & Nikolas, 2017). Despite the large empirical literature on the correlates of pubertal timing, relatively little work has examined pubertal timing in relation to personality traits, with only one study to date examining associations with psychopathic traits. Centifanti et al. (2018) recently reported a positive association between callous-unemotional
Corresponding author at: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, 108 Wolf Hall, Newark, DE 19716, USA. E-mail address: [email protected] (N. Sadeh).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2019.03.016 Received 9 November 2018; Received in revised form 23 January 2019; Accepted 11 March 2019 0191-8869/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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traits and pubertal timing in adolescent girls, suggesting that high levels of callous-unemotional traits may actually protect against early menarche in girls. Given the novelty of this finding and the dearth of empirical work on this topic to date, more research is needed to clarify relations between psychopathic traits and pubertal timing.
2.2. Procedures This study constitutes a secondary analysis of de-identified assessment data, originally collected to track progress in a pilot group therapy program. Permission was granted by the local juvenile legal system for recruitment of youth from residential centers to participate in the group therapy intervention and research assessments. The assessment team included ten graduate students, all of whom received training and supervision on assessment, comprehensible consent scripts, and safety protocols (e.g., in the event that youth indicated suicidality on a survey). Assessment team members informed youth and facility staff that participation was voluntary, non-participation would not adversely impact youth's relationship with facility staff, and that youth could choose to stop or delay participation at any time. Interested youth completed assent forms and were told participation would not affect their relationship with the facility. Twenty-two youth declined to participate in the study. All assessments were conducted in group settings, with assessment team members and facility staff present. To respect youth's privacy and ensure their confidentiality, participants were asked to sit apart from one another. Each assessment session lasted between 30 and 90 min, depending on the number of youth present and their sustained attention. Snacks were provided to all youth in the facilities regardless of participation, and alternative materials (i.e., word searches) were offered to individuals who declined survey participation. The research protocol was reviewed by all relevant Institutional Review Boards, and the collaborating government agency granted permission for the team to invite youth at participating facilities to enroll.
1.2. Implications for mental health functioning The interplay of psychopathic traits and pubertal timing may also be important for understanding mental health functioning in youth, another understudied research avenue. In particular, psychopathic traits, particularly the disinhibition/impulsivity facet, in youth have been associated with externalizing symptoms, including heavy alcohol consumption, illegal substance use, and aggressive behavior (Dolan & Rennie, 2007; Hillege, Das, & de Ruiter, 2010). Given that early pubertal onset has also been associated with adolescent psychopathology (Ullsperger & Nikolas, 2017), psychopathic traits may exacerbate the impact of pubertal development on these outcomes. However, no research to date has examined the possibility that the interplay of psychopathic traits and pubertal development may be relevant for mental health functioning. 1.3. Present study The first aim of this study was to examine whether psychopathic traits are associated with pubertal timing in a sample of juvenile-justice involved adolescents. Given the relevance of psychopathic traits and pubertal timing for antisocial behavior in youth, we hypothesized that higher levels of psychopathic traits would be associated with earlier pubertal timing. We also explored the possibility that different facets of psychopathic traits would be differentially associated with pubertal timing, based on research demonstrating the unique variance associated with psychopathic traits show divergent relations with biological factors (Patrick, Durbin, & Moser, 2012; Patrick & Drislane, 2015) and the recent positive association between callous-unemotional traits and pubertal timing in girls (Centifanti et al., 2018). The second aim was to investigate whether puberty interacted with psychopathic traits to predict recent mental health functioning in light of theoretical and empirical data suggesting these processes are risk factors for poor mental health outcomes in youth.
2.3. Measures 2.3.1. Psychopathic traits The Triarchic Psychopathy Measure (TriPM; Patrick, 2010) is a selfreport measure comprised of three subscales measuring conceptually distinct components of psychopathy: boldness, meanness, and disinhibition. Each of the measure's 58 items is a statement related to one of these components and is rated by the respondent as True (0), Somewhat True (1), Somewhat False (2), or False (3). A total psychopathy score is calculated by summing the three subscale totals. Reliability for the Total Score (Cronbach's alpha = 0.91; M = 79.9, SD = 25.5) and Boldness (Cronbach's alpha = 0.73; M = 26.5, SD = 8.2), Meanness (Cronbach's alpha = 0.81; M = 24.2, SD = 10.0), and Disinhibition (Cronbach's alpha = 0.82; M = 29.2, SD = 10.5) subscales were acceptable to good.
2. Material and methods 2.1. Participants
2.3.2. Pubertal timing Participants responded to the following prompts about their pubertal development: (a) “Have you gone through puberty yet?”, (b)“I was ___________ years old when I started going through puberty.”, and (c)“Did your physical development (puberty) seem to be earlier or later than most of the other girls (if you are a girl) or boys (if you are a boy) your age” [rated by the respondents as Much Earlier (1), Somewhat Earlier (2), About the Same Time (3), Somewhat Later (4), or Much Later (5); M = 2.5, SD = 0.93]. Only participants who reported having gone through puberty were included in the study. Question (c) is a measure of perceived timing derived from Petersen, Crockett, Richards, and Boxer (1988) Pubertal Development Scale that has been employed in previous research (e.g., Bond et al., 2006; Coakley, Holmbeck, & Bryant, 2006; Javdani, Rodriguez, Nichols, Emerson, & Donenberg, 2014), and is considered a reliable index of this construct with retrospective reports (Brooks-Gunn, Warren, Rosso, & Gargiulo, 1987). Further, it is significantly positively associated with physical assessments of puberty (Petersen et al., 1988) and allows for a meaningful comparison of pubertal timing between boys and girls from diverse samples, who demonstrate different average ages of pubertal onset (Wichstrom,
Participants included 87 girls (63.5%), 49 boys (35.8%), and one transgender youth (0.7%) (N = 137) involved in the juvenile legal system in a large metropolitan area (12–17 years-old, mean age 14.9, SD = 0.99). The majority of participants were in eighth (14.8%), ninth (39.8%) or tenth (29.7%) grade, with the remainder in eleventh/ twelfth grade (10.2%), or sixth/seventh grade (5.5%). The present sample was composed primarily of ethnic minority participants. The majority of the sample self-identified as Black (61.5%), followed by Caribbean Black (14.8%) and Latino (17.8%), and White (3.7%) (2.2% missing race/ethnicity data). All data were collected from youth in eight short-term detention facilities (STDFs) in a large U.S. city. These STDFs function as shortterm residential facilities that house adolescents while they await Family Court decisions regarding long-term housing (e.g., foster care) or sentences for violent and non-violent juvenile offenses. To ensure an adequate sample of girls, all four STDFs serving girls were selected and four boys' STDFs matched based on locality were selected for inclusion. All youth in participating facilities were invited to participate. 53
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Table 1 Mental health symptoms regressed on pubertal timing and interactions with total psychopathic traits (top panel) and psychopathy facets (bottom panel). Alcohol/Substance use
Anger/Irritability
β/SE
p-Value
β/SE
p-Value
Gender Grade Puberty Psychopathy Total Puberty × Psychopathy Total
−0.03/0.09 0.05/0.08 0.05/0.09 0.37/0.10 1.04/0.31
.528 .507 .528 < .001 .001
−0.19/0.09 −0.04/0.08 −0.02/0.09 0.25/0.12 0.88/0.37
.034 .619 .787 .043 .017
Boldness Meanness Disinhibition Puberty × Boldness Puberty × Meanness Puberty × Disinhibition
−0.24/0.11 0.41/0.11 0.25/0.10 −1.07/0.46 1.10/0.40 0.62/0.32
.039 < .001 .012 .020 .006 .053
−0.09/0.14 0.21/0.16 0.22/0.15 −0.64/0.52 −0.26/0.45 1.40/0.36
.498 .066 .136 .224 .563 < .001
Note. Results for predictors represent the main effects prior to adding the interaction to the model. Significant effects are indicated by bold font.
on disinhibition were associated with relatively earlier pubertal timing (β = −0.48, p = .004). Trait meanness was not associated with pubertal timing (β = 0.08, p > .61). These results suggest that psychopathic traits are related to pubertal onset in justice-involved youth, but the facets show opposing relationships with deviations in pubertal timing.
2006). We created a pubertal timing variable based on a composite measure of questions (b) and (c). Youth who rated their relative pubertal development as Much Earlier or Somewhat Earlier than their peers or estimated their pubertal onset at age 11 or younger were classified as early-developing youth (n = 65). These youths were compared to average- or late-developing youth (n = 61). Of note, very few youth perceived their pubertal development as Somewhat Later or Much Later than peers in this sample (8.1%).
3.2. Associations with mental health functioning Our first set of analyses examined pubertal timing and overall psychopathic traits as predictors of recent alcohol/substance use, anger, and depression/anxiety in separate models for each outcome. Psychopathic traits were associated with higher levels of recent alcohol/substance use (β = 0.37, p < .001) as well as anger problems (β = 0.25, p = .043), but not internalizing symptoms (i.e., depression/ anxiety; β = 0.17, p > .15). Pubertal onset was not directly associated with these mental health outcomes (|βs| < 0.07, ps > 0.44). Next, we examined whether pubertal timing qualified the significant associations between psychopathic traits and alcohol/substance use and anger/irritability. These relationships were all qualified by pubertal timing × psychopathy interactions (see Table 1). To decompose these interactions, we split the sample by pubertal timing and examined associations between psychopathic traits and mental health symptoms separately in early- vs. average/late- developing youth. As depicted in Fig. 1, the association between psychopathic traits and each mental health outcome was significant in average/late-developing youth (βs > 0.46, ps < 0.001), but not early-developing youth (βs < 0.22, ps > 0.059). To assess whether particular facets of psychopathy could account for the above findings, we followed-up these analyses by examining interactions between pubertal timing and trait boldness, meanness, and disinhibition (see bottom panel of Table 1). Puberty significantly moderated the association of boldness and meanness with recent alcohol/substance use, with a trend also emerging for disinhibition. Associations between the psychopathy facets and alcohol/substance use were significant for average/late-developing youth (boldness: β = −0.38, meanness: β = 0.61, disinhibition: β = 0.44; ps < 0.001), but not early-developing youth, with trait boldness showing an inverse relationship with alcohol/substance use, and meanness and disinhibition showing positive relationships with these symptoms. Puberty also moderated the association of disinhibition with recent anger, such that average/late-developing youth showed a positive association between trait disinhibition and anger/irritability (β = 0.49, p = .001) and earlydeveloping youth demonstrated no association (ps > 0.56).
2.3.3. Mental health symptoms The Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-Second Version (MAYSI-2) is a 52-item self-report measure used to identify mental health symptoms in incarcerated youth (Grisso et al., 2012). Questions inquire about youth's experiences within the past few months and are rated either Yes or No. We examined Alcohol/Drug Use (Cronbach's alpha = 0.77; M = 2.1, SD = 2.2), Anger/Irritability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.85; M = 4.2, SD = 3.0) and Depression/Anxiety (Cronbach's alpha = 0.75; M = 2.3, SD = 2.3). Supporting its construct validity, moderate correlations, ranging from r = 0.44 to r = 0.58, have been established between MAYSI-2 subscales and relevant scales from the Youth Self-Report and Suicide Ideation Questionnaire in a diverse sample of incarcerated youth (Grisso et al., 2012). 2.4. Data analysis Descriptive statistics were conducted with the software programs SPSS version 25 (Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.). Regression analyses were conducted in Mplus version 8.0 (Muthén & Muthén, 2013) using either the robust maximum likelihood estimator (for continuous outcomes) or the robust weighted least squares means and variance adjusted estimator (for dichotomous outcomes) to account for missing data. All analyses included gender and current grade in school as covariates. The maximum missingness on any variable was 9%. 3. Results 3.1. Psychopathic traits and pubertal timing We conducted a series of path analyses to examine associations between psychopathic traits and pubertal timing. For our first model, we regressed pubertal timing on gender, current grade level, and total psychopathic traits. Total psychopathic traits did not relate to pubertal timing (β = −0.07, p > .56). Next, we tested whether the facets of psychopathy showed associations with pubertal onset. Modeling followed the same sequence as above, with the exception that the psychopathy facets replaced the total psychopathy score. Higher scores on trait boldness were associated with relatively later pubertal timing (β = 0.34, p = .022), whereas higher scores
4. Discussion Psychopathic personality traits are known risk factors for engagement in chronic antisocial behavior, including during adolescence (Asscher 54
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Pubertal Timing Average/Late Early
Fig. 1. Psychopathic trait associations with mental health symptoms as a function of pubertal timing. Psychopathic traits were positively associated with alcohol/ substance use, and anger/irritability, but only among youth who reported average- or late-pubertal development (solid line, filled circles). Shaded regions indicate confidence intervals. TriPM = Triarchic Psychopathy Measure.
et al., 2011). This study examined whether these personality traits also explain variance in pubertal timing, another well-established risk factor for antisocial outcomes (Ullsperger & Nikolas, 2017). In a sample of justice-involved youth, we found that facets of psychopathic traits differentially related to pubertal timing. Trait boldness, indexing the fearless, stress resilient, and interpersonally dominant features of psychopathy, was associated with relatively later pubertal timing. In contrast, the disinhibition facet, reflecting problems with behavioral control and impulsivity, was associated with relatively early pubertal timing. Moreover, results suggested that pubertal timing moderated associations between psychopathic traits and current mental health problems in youth. Psychopathic traits conferred risk for alcohol/substance use and anger problems in youth who reported average- or late-pubertal development, but psychopathic traits did not relate to mental health functioning in early-developing youth. Together, these findings reveal novel relationships between psychopathic, pubertal development, and externalizing problems in a clinically-relevant sample of justice-involved youth. They extend previous knowledge by implicating the interplay of psychopathic traits and pubertal timing for youth mental health functioning. Psychopathy is a multidimensional construct composed of distinct, yet interrelated, facets or dimensions that reflect the interpersonal,
affective, and behavioral features of the disorder (Hare et al., 1990). Research often reveals differences, and at times even opposing relationships, between the psychopathy facets and external criteria (Drislane, Patrick, & Arsal, 2014; Javdani, Sadeh, & Verona, 2011a). Consistent with this larger body of work, divergent effects emerged for the boldness and disinhibition trait dimensions when the contributions of the psychopathy facets were examined simultaneously. Trait boldness, and the fearlessness that characterizes this dimension, are often associated with resilience to psychological distress, including reduced risk for internalizing psychopathology, and high levels of interpersonal charm and dominance (Patrick, Fowles, & Krueger, 2009). Given these findings, it is perhaps not surprising that boldness appeared to protect against early pubertal timing in this sample and was associated with fewer alcohol and substance use problems. Early pubertal timing is thought to be triggered, in part, by exposure to environmental stressors including childhood trauma, family conflict and parental absence (e.g., Moffitt, Caspi, Belsky, & Silva, 1992). As individuals who are high on trait boldness are less reactive to threats in their environment (e.g., Esteller et al., 2016), it may be that this personality feature protects them from the deleterious effects of volatile developmental contexts. A recent report by Esteller et al. (2016) found that trait boldness was associated with 55
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reduced fear-potentiated startle to threatening stimuli, an association that was not present for meanness or disinhibition. This finding suggests that high levels of boldness may increase an individual's imperturbability to stressful life events and is consistent with conceptualizations that psychopathic traits can be adaptive in some contexts, including in adolescence (Sadeh, Verona, Javdani, & Olson, 2009). In contrast to trait boldness, disinhibition was correlated negatively with pubertal timing, suggesting that high scores on this trait relate to earlier pubertal onset for justice-involved youth. Although measured in the context of psychopathic traits, the observed relationship between disinhibition and pubertal timing may have broader implications for understanding the relationship of pubertal timing with the externalizing spectrum of psychopathology. Problems with impulse control, behavioral inhibition, and emotional regulation are core features of the externalizing spectrum that are also captured by the disinhibition facet of psychopathy. Though it is well known that impulsive tendencies heighten risk for antisocial behavior, one contribution of the present study is the identification of pubertal timing as a potential mechanism that helps perpetuate this antisocial pathway. In light of research that disinhibition confers risk for other factors known to be associated with early pubertal onset, such as trauma exposure and stressful life events (Sadeh, Miller, Wolf, & Harkness, 2015), longitudinal studies are needed to examine the clarify potential interactive effects of disinhibition and environmental factors as mechanisms that potentiate pubertal onset. We also found that psychopathic traits conferred risk for current externalizing, but not internalizing, symptoms among justice-involved youth. In relation to externalizing symptoms, when examining the unique contributions of the psychopathy facets, trait boldness showed a similar protective effect against recent alcohol/substance use as it did with early pubertal onset. Disinhibition and meanness, in contrast, were positively associated with externalizing symptoms. Extending previous work on the mental health correlates of psychopathic traits in youth, we found that pubertal onset moderated the positive associations observed between psychopathic traits and externalizing symptoms. Specifically, higher overall scores on the TriPM were associated with more alcohol/ substance use and anger symptoms, but only among youth who reported pubertal development that was on-par or relatively later than their peers. This finding appeared to be driven primarily by trait meanness for alcohol/substance use and trait disinhibition for anger/ irritability. Taken together, these findings point to the importance of considering pubertal status when examining associations between psychopathic traits and youth externalizing problems, particularly substance-use and anger-related problems. In particular, the present findings suggest that psychopathic traits confer greater risk for externalizing problems for justice-involved adolescents who experience relatively normative or late pubertal onset compared to their early-developing peers. The findings for average- to late- developing adolescents are consistent with previous research showing positive associations between psychopathic features and externalizing problems among offending adults (Patrick, Hicks, Krueger, & Lang, 2005) and youth (Hillege et al., 2010). The lack of an association between psychopathic traits and mental health functioning among early-developing adolescents is somewhat surprising, given the previous research linking psychopathic traits to externalizing symptoms described above and research implicating early pubertal development as a risk factor for antisocial behaviors (e.g., Negriff & Trickett, 2010). However, one potential explanation for this finding may be that, in addition to individual personality factors, contextual factors need to be considered in understanding the interplay between psychopathic traits and externalizing problems for adolescents with early pubertal onset. Indeed, this conceptualization is consistent with previous research pointing to the importance of considering environmental risk factors, such as family context and poverty, when examining externalizing problems among early-developing adolescents (Javdani, Sadeh, & Verona, 2011b; Susman & Dorn, 2009). For example, Burt et al. (2006)
found that, while genetic factors promote risk for conduct disorder in average-developing youth, environmental factors are more critical for the development of conduct problems in early-developing youth. Similarly, Mendle, Moore, Briley, and Harden (2016) found no evidence for a relationship between early pubertal timing and depression for youth from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Thus, our finding that psychopathic traits were more strongly related to mental health functioning in average- than early-developing youth may reflect a similar process, whereby individual difference factors, like personality traits, play less of a role in the developmental trajectories of early- than average/late-developing youth. This study has several strengths, including examination of risk factors for antisocial behavior in a high-risk sample of juvenile-justice involved youth with a large representation of girls who are often underrepresented in research on antisocial behavior. There are also limitations that need to be considered. First, our measure of pubertal timing was limited in scope and relied on retrospective reports of respondents. Although this is not uncommon in research on pubertal development, future work examining multiple indicators of pubertal development using a longitudinal design is needed to verify the findings. Second, the cross-sectional nature of the study limits conclusions about the direction of the effects. We proposed that psychopathic traits influenced pubertal timing based on the finding that these traits often emerge in childhood and, thus, would precede the onset of puberty. However, it is also possible that the transition that accompanies adolescence may alter or exacerbate personality traits (Caspi & Moffitt, 1991), making it important to assess these relationships using repeated measures over time. Third, given the antisocial nature of the sample, the possibility of malingering, especially in relation to the self-report assessment of mental health symptoms, should be considered. Combining clinical diagnostic interviews, observation, and collateral sources would strengthen confidence in the validity of these findings. It is important to note, however, that the data were collected as part of a research study that did not share information with the detention facility, which should diminish the motivation to misrepresent one's mental health functioning. Fourth, the size of the sample is relatively modest and the racial/ethnic composition is limited in scope. Thus, replication of the findings in a larger, more ethnically-diverse sample of youth is needed before strong conclusions can be drawn. Fifth, we did not have information on the types of offenses the youth perpetrated, which could be an important factor related to pubertal timing and its intersection with psychopathic traits. Future research aimed at examining potential differences among youth who perpetrate violent versus non-violent offenses in terms of pubertal timing and its relationship with psychopathic traits could elucidate interesting differences in the developmental trajectories of these groups. In addition, a prospective research design composed of a large sample of ethnically-diverse youth at high risk of involvement in the juvenile justice system that includes multiple indicators of pubertal development over the course of adolescence would address some of the limitations of the current study and provide important information on the directionality of effects between psychopathic traits, pubertal onset, and mental health functioning. Furthermore, inclusion of a more detailed analysis of the chronicity and severity of antisocial behavior would be beneficial for teasing apart the relevance of these phenotypes for understanding pubertal and psychopathic effects on antisocial trajectories. Despite its limitations, the study contributes to the literature by delineating novel relationships between psychopathic personality traits in youth and pubertal timing. Funding This work was supported in part by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences [grant number 2P20GM103653-06-6527] and the National Institute of Mental Health [grant numbers L40 MH108089 and L30 MH117623]. The National Institutes of Health had no role in the 56
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study design, collection, analysis, or interpretation of the data, writing the manuscript, or the decision to submit the paper for publication.
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References Asscher, J. J., van Vugt, E. S., Stams, G. J. J., Deković, M., Eichelsheim, V. I., & Yousfi, S. (2011). The relationship between juvenile psychopathic traits, delinquency & recidivism: A meta-analysis. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 52, 1134–1143. Bond, L., Clements, J., Bertalli, N., Evans-Whipp, T., McMorris, B. J., Patton, G. C., et al. (2006). A comparison of self-reported puberty using the pubertal development scale and the sexual maturation scale in a school-based epidemiologic survey. Journal of Adolescence, 29, 709–720. Brooks-Gunn, B. G., Warren, M. P., Rosso, J., & Gargiulo, J. (1987). Validity of self-report measures of girls' pubertal status. Child Development, 58, 829–841. Burt, S. A., McGue, M., DeMarte, J. A., Krueger, R. F., & Iacono, W. G. (2006). Timing of menarche and the origins of conduct disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry, 63, 890–896. Caspi, A., & Moffitt, T. E. (1991). Individual differences are accentuated during periods of social change. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61(1), 157–168. Centifanti, L. C. M., Boydston, L., Wee, C., Demetriou, V., MacLellan, S., & AnastassiouHadjicharalambous, X. (2018). Pubertal timing and callous-unemotional traits in girls: Associations across two samples from the UK and Cyprus. Journal of Adolescence, 69, 52–61. Coakley, R. M., Holmbeck, G. N., & Bryant, F. B. (2006). Constructing a prospective model of psychosocial adaptation in young adolescents with spina bifida: An application of optimal data analysis. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 31, 1084–1099. Dolan, M. C., & Rennie, C. E. (2007). The relationship between psychopathic traits measured by the Youth Psychopathic Trait Inventory and psychopathology in a UK sample of conduct disordered boys. Journal of Adolescence, 30(4), 601–611. Drislane, L. E., Patrick, C. J., & Arsal, G. (2014). Clarifying the content coverage of differing psychopathy inventories through reference to the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure. Psychological Assessment, 26, 350–362. Esteller, À., Poy, R., & Moltó, J. (2016). Deficient aversive-potentiated startle and the Triarchic model of psychopathy: The role of boldness. Biological Psychology, 117, 131–140. Fowles, D. C. (1980). The three arousal model: Implications of Gray's two‐factor learning theory for heart rate, electrodermal activity, and psychopathy. Psychophysiology, 17(2), 87–104. Grisso, T., Fusco, S., Paiva-Salisbury, M., Perrauot, R., Williams, V., & Barnum, R. (2012). The Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-Version 2 (MAYSI-2): Comprehensive research review. Worcester, MA: University of Massachusetts Medical School. www. nysap.us. Hare, R. D., Harpur, T. J., Hakstian, A. R., Forth, A. E., Hart, S. D., & Newman, J. P. (1990). The Revised Prsychopathy Checklist: Reliability and factor structure. Psychological Assessment, 2, 338–341. Hillege, S., Das, J., & de Ruiter, C. (2010). The Youth Psychopathic traits Inventory: Psychometric properties and its relation to substance use and interpersonal style in a Dutch sample of non-referred adolescents. Journal of Adolescence, 33, 83–91. Javdani, S., Rodriguez, E. M., Nichols, S. R., Emerson, E., & Donenberg, G. R. (2014).
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Personality and Individual Differences journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/paid
Psychopathic traits, pubertal timing, & mental health functioning in justiceinvolved adolescents
T
Naomi Sadeha, , Nadia Bounouaa, Shabnam Javdanib ⁎
a b
University of Delaware, Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, 105 The Green, Newark, DE 19716, USA New York University, Department of Applied Psychology, 246 Green Street, New York, NY 10003, USA
ARTICLE INFO
ABSTRACT
Keywords: Triarchic Psychopathy Measure Boldness Disinhibition Meanness Substance use Anger
Although psychopathic traits and pubertal timing have garnered a great deal of attention as potent risk factors for antisocial trajectories, very little research has examined how these processes may be related. We investigated whether psychopathic traits were related to deviations in pubertal onset in a clinically-relevant sample of youth detained in juvenile detention facilities. One-hundred and thirty-seven adolescents (ages 12–17) completed surveys of pubertal timing, psychopathic traits, and mental health functioning. As predicted, psychopathic traits were found to be associated with pubertal timing, and the psychopathy facets evidenced differential associations with the onset of puberty. Trait disinhibition was associated with relatively earlier pubertal timing, whereas trait boldness appeared to confer protection against early pubertal onset in this sample. Symptoms of alcohol/substance use and anger/irritability were positively related to psychopathic traits, but only among youth who reported average-/late-pubertal development. These findings implicate psychopathic personality traits as individual difference variables that may influence the onset of pubertal timing and interact with pubertal timing to place justice-involved youth at risk for poor mental health.
1. Introduction Youth who manifest high levels of psychopathic traits are at higher risk for delinquency, recidivism, and aggressive behavior (Asscher et al., 2011). The triarchic model of psychopathy proposed by Patrick and colleagues (Patrick & Drislane, 2015) parses psychopathic traits into three facets that differ in their core features and neurobiological bases. The boldness facet reflects the temperamental fearlessness, lack of anxiety, resilience to psychopathological distress, and interpersonal dominance that is characteristic of psychopathy (Fowles, 1980; Lykken, 1957). The callous and unemotional features of psychopathy (e.g., lack of empathy, callous-aggression) are captured by the meanness facet, and the disinhibition facet reflects the lack of inhibitory control that is core to psychopathy as well as impulsive conduct problems and externalizing disorders (Patrick & Drislane, 2015). In addition to showing distinct behavioral correlates, these facets are thought to be grounded in different neurobiological systems. Disinhibition, for instance, corresponds to behavioral and neurobiological abnormalities in the functioning of inhibitory control systems (e.g., prefrontal executive regions), necessary to restrain behavioral impulses (Patrick, Durbin, & Moser, 2012), whereas the boldness facet corresponds to behavioral and neurobiological systems that regulate threat sensitivity (e.g., amygdala activation), with ⁎
individuals scoring higher on boldness presumably showing lower levels of defensive reactivity in the face of threat (Esteller, Poy, & Moltó, 2016). The current study investigated associations between the triarchic model of psychopathic traits and another well-established risk factor for delinquency and antisocial behavior, pubertal timing (Burt, McGue, DeMarte, Krueger, & Iacono, 2006). 1.1. Psychopathy and puberty Pubertal timing has long been of interest to investigators studying delinquency and antisocial behavior in adolescence, and much empirical work has been done on this topic to date (Ullsperger & Nikolas, 2017). A recent meta-analysis of 134 samples that examined the association between pubertal timing (defined in relation to same-age, and same-sex peers) and psychopathology found early pubertal timing was correlated with higher levels of externalizing problems generally (d = 0.22) and antisocial behavior in particular (d = 0.17) (Ullsperger & Nikolas, 2017). Despite the large empirical literature on the correlates of pubertal timing, relatively little work has examined pubertal timing in relation to personality traits, with only one study to date examining associations with psychopathic traits. Centifanti et al. (2018) recently reported a positive association between callous-unemotional
Corresponding author at: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, 108 Wolf Hall, Newark, DE 19716, USA. E-mail address: [email protected] (N. Sadeh).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2019.03.016 Received 9 November 2018; Received in revised form 23 January 2019; Accepted 11 March 2019 0191-8869/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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traits and pubertal timing in adolescent girls, suggesting that high levels of callous-unemotional traits may actually protect against early menarche in girls. Given the novelty of this finding and the dearth of empirical work on this topic to date, more research is needed to clarify relations between psychopathic traits and pubertal timing.
2.2. Procedures This study constitutes a secondary analysis of de-identified assessment data, originally collected to track progress in a pilot group therapy program. Permission was granted by the local juvenile legal system for recruitment of youth from residential centers to participate in the group therapy intervention and research assessments. The assessment team included ten graduate students, all of whom received training and supervision on assessment, comprehensible consent scripts, and safety protocols (e.g., in the event that youth indicated suicidality on a survey). Assessment team members informed youth and facility staff that participation was voluntary, non-participation would not adversely impact youth's relationship with facility staff, and that youth could choose to stop or delay participation at any time. Interested youth completed assent forms and were told participation would not affect their relationship with the facility. Twenty-two youth declined to participate in the study. All assessments were conducted in group settings, with assessment team members and facility staff present. To respect youth's privacy and ensure their confidentiality, participants were asked to sit apart from one another. Each assessment session lasted between 30 and 90 min, depending on the number of youth present and their sustained attention. Snacks were provided to all youth in the facilities regardless of participation, and alternative materials (i.e., word searches) were offered to individuals who declined survey participation. The research protocol was reviewed by all relevant Institutional Review Boards, and the collaborating government agency granted permission for the team to invite youth at participating facilities to enroll.
1.2. Implications for mental health functioning The interplay of psychopathic traits and pubertal timing may also be important for understanding mental health functioning in youth, another understudied research avenue. In particular, psychopathic traits, particularly the disinhibition/impulsivity facet, in youth have been associated with externalizing symptoms, including heavy alcohol consumption, illegal substance use, and aggressive behavior (Dolan & Rennie, 2007; Hillege, Das, & de Ruiter, 2010). Given that early pubertal onset has also been associated with adolescent psychopathology (Ullsperger & Nikolas, 2017), psychopathic traits may exacerbate the impact of pubertal development on these outcomes. However, no research to date has examined the possibility that the interplay of psychopathic traits and pubertal development may be relevant for mental health functioning. 1.3. Present study The first aim of this study was to examine whether psychopathic traits are associated with pubertal timing in a sample of juvenile-justice involved adolescents. Given the relevance of psychopathic traits and pubertal timing for antisocial behavior in youth, we hypothesized that higher levels of psychopathic traits would be associated with earlier pubertal timing. We also explored the possibility that different facets of psychopathic traits would be differentially associated with pubertal timing, based on research demonstrating the unique variance associated with psychopathic traits show divergent relations with biological factors (Patrick, Durbin, & Moser, 2012; Patrick & Drislane, 2015) and the recent positive association between callous-unemotional traits and pubertal timing in girls (Centifanti et al., 2018). The second aim was to investigate whether puberty interacted with psychopathic traits to predict recent mental health functioning in light of theoretical and empirical data suggesting these processes are risk factors for poor mental health outcomes in youth.
2.3. Measures 2.3.1. Psychopathic traits The Triarchic Psychopathy Measure (TriPM; Patrick, 2010) is a selfreport measure comprised of three subscales measuring conceptually distinct components of psychopathy: boldness, meanness, and disinhibition. Each of the measure's 58 items is a statement related to one of these components and is rated by the respondent as True (0), Somewhat True (1), Somewhat False (2), or False (3). A total psychopathy score is calculated by summing the three subscale totals. Reliability for the Total Score (Cronbach's alpha = 0.91; M = 79.9, SD = 25.5) and Boldness (Cronbach's alpha = 0.73; M = 26.5, SD = 8.2), Meanness (Cronbach's alpha = 0.81; M = 24.2, SD = 10.0), and Disinhibition (Cronbach's alpha = 0.82; M = 29.2, SD = 10.5) subscales were acceptable to good.
2. Material and methods 2.1. Participants
2.3.2. Pubertal timing Participants responded to the following prompts about their pubertal development: (a) “Have you gone through puberty yet?”, (b)“I was ___________ years old when I started going through puberty.”, and (c)“Did your physical development (puberty) seem to be earlier or later than most of the other girls (if you are a girl) or boys (if you are a boy) your age” [rated by the respondents as Much Earlier (1), Somewhat Earlier (2), About the Same Time (3), Somewhat Later (4), or Much Later (5); M = 2.5, SD = 0.93]. Only participants who reported having gone through puberty were included in the study. Question (c) is a measure of perceived timing derived from Petersen, Crockett, Richards, and Boxer (1988) Pubertal Development Scale that has been employed in previous research (e.g., Bond et al., 2006; Coakley, Holmbeck, & Bryant, 2006; Javdani, Rodriguez, Nichols, Emerson, & Donenberg, 2014), and is considered a reliable index of this construct with retrospective reports (Brooks-Gunn, Warren, Rosso, & Gargiulo, 1987). Further, it is significantly positively associated with physical assessments of puberty (Petersen et al., 1988) and allows for a meaningful comparison of pubertal timing between boys and girls from diverse samples, who demonstrate different average ages of pubertal onset (Wichstrom,
Participants included 87 girls (63.5%), 49 boys (35.8%), and one transgender youth (0.7%) (N = 137) involved in the juvenile legal system in a large metropolitan area (12–17 years-old, mean age 14.9, SD = 0.99). The majority of participants were in eighth (14.8%), ninth (39.8%) or tenth (29.7%) grade, with the remainder in eleventh/ twelfth grade (10.2%), or sixth/seventh grade (5.5%). The present sample was composed primarily of ethnic minority participants. The majority of the sample self-identified as Black (61.5%), followed by Caribbean Black (14.8%) and Latino (17.8%), and White (3.7%) (2.2% missing race/ethnicity data). All data were collected from youth in eight short-term detention facilities (STDFs) in a large U.S. city. These STDFs function as shortterm residential facilities that house adolescents while they await Family Court decisions regarding long-term housing (e.g., foster care) or sentences for violent and non-violent juvenile offenses. To ensure an adequate sample of girls, all four STDFs serving girls were selected and four boys' STDFs matched based on locality were selected for inclusion. All youth in participating facilities were invited to participate. 53
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Table 1 Mental health symptoms regressed on pubertal timing and interactions with total psychopathic traits (top panel) and psychopathy facets (bottom panel). Alcohol/Substance use
Anger/Irritability
β/SE
p-Value
β/SE
p-Value
Gender Grade Puberty Psychopathy Total Puberty × Psychopathy Total
−0.03/0.09 0.05/0.08 0.05/0.09 0.37/0.10 1.04/0.31
.528 .507 .528 < .001 .001
−0.19/0.09 −0.04/0.08 −0.02/0.09 0.25/0.12 0.88/0.37
.034 .619 .787 .043 .017
Boldness Meanness Disinhibition Puberty × Boldness Puberty × Meanness Puberty × Disinhibition
−0.24/0.11 0.41/0.11 0.25/0.10 −1.07/0.46 1.10/0.40 0.62/0.32
.039 < .001 .012 .020 .006 .053
−0.09/0.14 0.21/0.16 0.22/0.15 −0.64/0.52 −0.26/0.45 1.40/0.36
.498 .066 .136 .224 .563 < .001
Note. Results for predictors represent the main effects prior to adding the interaction to the model. Significant effects are indicated by bold font.
on disinhibition were associated with relatively earlier pubertal timing (β = −0.48, p = .004). Trait meanness was not associated with pubertal timing (β = 0.08, p > .61). These results suggest that psychopathic traits are related to pubertal onset in justice-involved youth, but the facets show opposing relationships with deviations in pubertal timing.
2006). We created a pubertal timing variable based on a composite measure of questions (b) and (c). Youth who rated their relative pubertal development as Much Earlier or Somewhat Earlier than their peers or estimated their pubertal onset at age 11 or younger were classified as early-developing youth (n = 65). These youths were compared to average- or late-developing youth (n = 61). Of note, very few youth perceived their pubertal development as Somewhat Later or Much Later than peers in this sample (8.1%).
3.2. Associations with mental health functioning Our first set of analyses examined pubertal timing and overall psychopathic traits as predictors of recent alcohol/substance use, anger, and depression/anxiety in separate models for each outcome. Psychopathic traits were associated with higher levels of recent alcohol/substance use (β = 0.37, p < .001) as well as anger problems (β = 0.25, p = .043), but not internalizing symptoms (i.e., depression/ anxiety; β = 0.17, p > .15). Pubertal onset was not directly associated with these mental health outcomes (|βs| < 0.07, ps > 0.44). Next, we examined whether pubertal timing qualified the significant associations between psychopathic traits and alcohol/substance use and anger/irritability. These relationships were all qualified by pubertal timing × psychopathy interactions (see Table 1). To decompose these interactions, we split the sample by pubertal timing and examined associations between psychopathic traits and mental health symptoms separately in early- vs. average/late- developing youth. As depicted in Fig. 1, the association between psychopathic traits and each mental health outcome was significant in average/late-developing youth (βs > 0.46, ps < 0.001), but not early-developing youth (βs < 0.22, ps > 0.059). To assess whether particular facets of psychopathy could account for the above findings, we followed-up these analyses by examining interactions between pubertal timing and trait boldness, meanness, and disinhibition (see bottom panel of Table 1). Puberty significantly moderated the association of boldness and meanness with recent alcohol/substance use, with a trend also emerging for disinhibition. Associations between the psychopathy facets and alcohol/substance use were significant for average/late-developing youth (boldness: β = −0.38, meanness: β = 0.61, disinhibition: β = 0.44; ps < 0.001), but not early-developing youth, with trait boldness showing an inverse relationship with alcohol/substance use, and meanness and disinhibition showing positive relationships with these symptoms. Puberty also moderated the association of disinhibition with recent anger, such that average/late-developing youth showed a positive association between trait disinhibition and anger/irritability (β = 0.49, p = .001) and earlydeveloping youth demonstrated no association (ps > 0.56).
2.3.3. Mental health symptoms The Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-Second Version (MAYSI-2) is a 52-item self-report measure used to identify mental health symptoms in incarcerated youth (Grisso et al., 2012). Questions inquire about youth's experiences within the past few months and are rated either Yes or No. We examined Alcohol/Drug Use (Cronbach's alpha = 0.77; M = 2.1, SD = 2.2), Anger/Irritability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.85; M = 4.2, SD = 3.0) and Depression/Anxiety (Cronbach's alpha = 0.75; M = 2.3, SD = 2.3). Supporting its construct validity, moderate correlations, ranging from r = 0.44 to r = 0.58, have been established between MAYSI-2 subscales and relevant scales from the Youth Self-Report and Suicide Ideation Questionnaire in a diverse sample of incarcerated youth (Grisso et al., 2012). 2.4. Data analysis Descriptive statistics were conducted with the software programs SPSS version 25 (Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.). Regression analyses were conducted in Mplus version 8.0 (Muthén & Muthén, 2013) using either the robust maximum likelihood estimator (for continuous outcomes) or the robust weighted least squares means and variance adjusted estimator (for dichotomous outcomes) to account for missing data. All analyses included gender and current grade in school as covariates. The maximum missingness on any variable was 9%. 3. Results 3.1. Psychopathic traits and pubertal timing We conducted a series of path analyses to examine associations between psychopathic traits and pubertal timing. For our first model, we regressed pubertal timing on gender, current grade level, and total psychopathic traits. Total psychopathic traits did not relate to pubertal timing (β = −0.07, p > .56). Next, we tested whether the facets of psychopathy showed associations with pubertal onset. Modeling followed the same sequence as above, with the exception that the psychopathy facets replaced the total psychopathy score. Higher scores on trait boldness were associated with relatively later pubertal timing (β = 0.34, p = .022), whereas higher scores
4. Discussion Psychopathic personality traits are known risk factors for engagement in chronic antisocial behavior, including during adolescence (Asscher 54
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Pubertal Timing Average/Late Early
Fig. 1. Psychopathic trait associations with mental health symptoms as a function of pubertal timing. Psychopathic traits were positively associated with alcohol/ substance use, and anger/irritability, but only among youth who reported average- or late-pubertal development (solid line, filled circles). Shaded regions indicate confidence intervals. TriPM = Triarchic Psychopathy Measure.
et al., 2011). This study examined whether these personality traits also explain variance in pubertal timing, another well-established risk factor for antisocial outcomes (Ullsperger & Nikolas, 2017). In a sample of justice-involved youth, we found that facets of psychopathic traits differentially related to pubertal timing. Trait boldness, indexing the fearless, stress resilient, and interpersonally dominant features of psychopathy, was associated with relatively later pubertal timing. In contrast, the disinhibition facet, reflecting problems with behavioral control and impulsivity, was associated with relatively early pubertal timing. Moreover, results suggested that pubertal timing moderated associations between psychopathic traits and current mental health problems in youth. Psychopathic traits conferred risk for alcohol/substance use and anger problems in youth who reported average- or late-pubertal development, but psychopathic traits did not relate to mental health functioning in early-developing youth. Together, these findings reveal novel relationships between psychopathic, pubertal development, and externalizing problems in a clinically-relevant sample of justice-involved youth. They extend previous knowledge by implicating the interplay of psychopathic traits and pubertal timing for youth mental health functioning. Psychopathy is a multidimensional construct composed of distinct, yet interrelated, facets or dimensions that reflect the interpersonal,
affective, and behavioral features of the disorder (Hare et al., 1990). Research often reveals differences, and at times even opposing relationships, between the psychopathy facets and external criteria (Drislane, Patrick, & Arsal, 2014; Javdani, Sadeh, & Verona, 2011a). Consistent with this larger body of work, divergent effects emerged for the boldness and disinhibition trait dimensions when the contributions of the psychopathy facets were examined simultaneously. Trait boldness, and the fearlessness that characterizes this dimension, are often associated with resilience to psychological distress, including reduced risk for internalizing psychopathology, and high levels of interpersonal charm and dominance (Patrick, Fowles, & Krueger, 2009). Given these findings, it is perhaps not surprising that boldness appeared to protect against early pubertal timing in this sample and was associated with fewer alcohol and substance use problems. Early pubertal timing is thought to be triggered, in part, by exposure to environmental stressors including childhood trauma, family conflict and parental absence (e.g., Moffitt, Caspi, Belsky, & Silva, 1992). As individuals who are high on trait boldness are less reactive to threats in their environment (e.g., Esteller et al., 2016), it may be that this personality feature protects them from the deleterious effects of volatile developmental contexts. A recent report by Esteller et al. (2016) found that trait boldness was associated with 55
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reduced fear-potentiated startle to threatening stimuli, an association that was not present for meanness or disinhibition. This finding suggests that high levels of boldness may increase an individual's imperturbability to stressful life events and is consistent with conceptualizations that psychopathic traits can be adaptive in some contexts, including in adolescence (Sadeh, Verona, Javdani, & Olson, 2009). In contrast to trait boldness, disinhibition was correlated negatively with pubertal timing, suggesting that high scores on this trait relate to earlier pubertal onset for justice-involved youth. Although measured in the context of psychopathic traits, the observed relationship between disinhibition and pubertal timing may have broader implications for understanding the relationship of pubertal timing with the externalizing spectrum of psychopathology. Problems with impulse control, behavioral inhibition, and emotional regulation are core features of the externalizing spectrum that are also captured by the disinhibition facet of psychopathy. Though it is well known that impulsive tendencies heighten risk for antisocial behavior, one contribution of the present study is the identification of pubertal timing as a potential mechanism that helps perpetuate this antisocial pathway. In light of research that disinhibition confers risk for other factors known to be associated with early pubertal onset, such as trauma exposure and stressful life events (Sadeh, Miller, Wolf, & Harkness, 2015), longitudinal studies are needed to examine the clarify potential interactive effects of disinhibition and environmental factors as mechanisms that potentiate pubertal onset. We also found that psychopathic traits conferred risk for current externalizing, but not internalizing, symptoms among justice-involved youth. In relation to externalizing symptoms, when examining the unique contributions of the psychopathy facets, trait boldness showed a similar protective effect against recent alcohol/substance use as it did with early pubertal onset. Disinhibition and meanness, in contrast, were positively associated with externalizing symptoms. Extending previous work on the mental health correlates of psychopathic traits in youth, we found that pubertal onset moderated the positive associations observed between psychopathic traits and externalizing symptoms. Specifically, higher overall scores on the TriPM were associated with more alcohol/ substance use and anger symptoms, but only among youth who reported pubertal development that was on-par or relatively later than their peers. This finding appeared to be driven primarily by trait meanness for alcohol/substance use and trait disinhibition for anger/ irritability. Taken together, these findings point to the importance of considering pubertal status when examining associations between psychopathic traits and youth externalizing problems, particularly substance-use and anger-related problems. In particular, the present findings suggest that psychopathic traits confer greater risk for externalizing problems for justice-involved adolescents who experience relatively normative or late pubertal onset compared to their early-developing peers. The findings for average- to late- developing adolescents are consistent with previous research showing positive associations between psychopathic features and externalizing problems among offending adults (Patrick, Hicks, Krueger, & Lang, 2005) and youth (Hillege et al., 2010). The lack of an association between psychopathic traits and mental health functioning among early-developing adolescents is somewhat surprising, given the previous research linking psychopathic traits to externalizing symptoms described above and research implicating early pubertal development as a risk factor for antisocial behaviors (e.g., Negriff & Trickett, 2010). However, one potential explanation for this finding may be that, in addition to individual personality factors, contextual factors need to be considered in understanding the interplay between psychopathic traits and externalizing problems for adolescents with early pubertal onset. Indeed, this conceptualization is consistent with previous research pointing to the importance of considering environmental risk factors, such as family context and poverty, when examining externalizing problems among early-developing adolescents (Javdani, Sadeh, & Verona, 2011b; Susman & Dorn, 2009). For example, Burt et al. (2006)
found that, while genetic factors promote risk for conduct disorder in average-developing youth, environmental factors are more critical for the development of conduct problems in early-developing youth. Similarly, Mendle, Moore, Briley, and Harden (2016) found no evidence for a relationship between early pubertal timing and depression for youth from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Thus, our finding that psychopathic traits were more strongly related to mental health functioning in average- than early-developing youth may reflect a similar process, whereby individual difference factors, like personality traits, play less of a role in the developmental trajectories of early- than average/late-developing youth. This study has several strengths, including examination of risk factors for antisocial behavior in a high-risk sample of juvenile-justice involved youth with a large representation of girls who are often underrepresented in research on antisocial behavior. There are also limitations that need to be considered. First, our measure of pubertal timing was limited in scope and relied on retrospective reports of respondents. Although this is not uncommon in research on pubertal development, future work examining multiple indicators of pubertal development using a longitudinal design is needed to verify the findings. Second, the cross-sectional nature of the study limits conclusions about the direction of the effects. We proposed that psychopathic traits influenced pubertal timing based on the finding that these traits often emerge in childhood and, thus, would precede the onset of puberty. However, it is also possible that the transition that accompanies adolescence may alter or exacerbate personality traits (Caspi & Moffitt, 1991), making it important to assess these relationships using repeated measures over time. Third, given the antisocial nature of the sample, the possibility of malingering, especially in relation to the self-report assessment of mental health symptoms, should be considered. Combining clinical diagnostic interviews, observation, and collateral sources would strengthen confidence in the validity of these findings. It is important to note, however, that the data were collected as part of a research study that did not share information with the detention facility, which should diminish the motivation to misrepresent one's mental health functioning. Fourth, the size of the sample is relatively modest and the racial/ethnic composition is limited in scope. Thus, replication of the findings in a larger, more ethnically-diverse sample of youth is needed before strong conclusions can be drawn. Fifth, we did not have information on the types of offenses the youth perpetrated, which could be an important factor related to pubertal timing and its intersection with psychopathic traits. Future research aimed at examining potential differences among youth who perpetrate violent versus non-violent offenses in terms of pubertal timing and its relationship with psychopathic traits could elucidate interesting differences in the developmental trajectories of these groups. In addition, a prospective research design composed of a large sample of ethnically-diverse youth at high risk of involvement in the juvenile justice system that includes multiple indicators of pubertal development over the course of adolescence would address some of the limitations of the current study and provide important information on the directionality of effects between psychopathic traits, pubertal onset, and mental health functioning. Furthermore, inclusion of a more detailed analysis of the chronicity and severity of antisocial behavior would be beneficial for teasing apart the relevance of these phenotypes for understanding pubertal and psychopathic effects on antisocial trajectories. Despite its limitations, the study contributes to the literature by delineating novel relationships between psychopathic personality traits in youth and pubertal timing. Funding This work was supported in part by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences [grant number 2P20GM103653-06-6527] and the National Institute of Mental Health [grant numbers L40 MH108089 and L30 MH117623]. The National Institutes of Health had no role in the 56
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study design, collection, analysis, or interpretation of the data, writing the manuscript, or the decision to submit the paper for publication.
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