Bryan R. Loney

Callous-Unemotional Traits and Developmental Pathways to Severe Conduct Problems.

One method for defining pathways through which children develop severe conduct problems is based on the presence or absence of callous-unemotional (CU) traits. This study investigated potential differences between nonreferred children (mean age = 12.36 years; SD = 1.73) with and without CU traits (n = 98). Children with conduct problems, irrespective of the presence of CU traits, tended to have significant problems in emotional and behavioral regulation. In contrast, CU traits, irespective of the presence of conduct problems, were associated with a lack of behavioral inhibition. Hostile attributional biases were associated with conduct problems but only in boys and in the absence of CU traits. These findings suggest that the processes underlying deficits in emotional and behavioral regulation in children with conduct problems may be different for children with CU traits.

Genetic and Environmental Influences on Psychopathy Trait Dimensions in a Community Sample of Male Twins

Psychopathy appears to be comprised of two broad dimensions: impulsivity/antisocial behavior and interpersonal detachment/callousness. This study examined the extent to which variance in these 2 psychopathy trait dimensions was associated with common or unique genetic, shared, and nonshared environmental factors in two independent samples of reared together 16–18-year-old male twins. One sample included 142 monozygotic (MZ) and 70 dizygotic (DZ) pairs; the other sample included 128 MZ and 58 DZ pairs. Boys completed the Minnesota Temperament Inventory (MTI), a 19-item measure that contains separate subscales: Antisocial and Detachment. Variance in the Antisocial and Detachment scales was associated with additive genetic factors and neither scale was associated with shared environmental factors. As expected, the bivariate biometric analysis suggested genetic influence on the covariance of the scales. The results are consistent with theoretical models of psychopathy that posit some independence in the etiology of the two major trait dimensions of psychopathy.

Gender differences in the association between psychopathic personality traits and cortisol response to induced stress.

Blunted stress reactivity has been implicated in the development of psychopathic personality traits. Cortisol is a biological marker of stress reactivity that has received little attention in prior psychopathy studies. The current investigation proposed that inhibition of cortisol response to induced stress is a reliable marker for psychopathic personality traits. An extreme groups methodology was used to recruit a mixed-gender sample of 84 college students characterized by high and low scores on the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale. Participants provided saliva samples prior to and after a well-established stress induction procedure (i.e., Trier Social Stress Test). These samples were assessed for cortisol (microg/dL) using an enzyme immunoassay procedure. Consistent with prediction, male participants high in psychopathic personality traits lacked stress induced increases in cortisol displayed by males low in psychopathic personality traits. This effect was not present in female participants. These findings suggest that cortisol production is a gender-specific marker for psychopathic personality traits.

The use of laboratory and performance-based measures in the assessment of children and adolescents with conduct disorders.

Provides a review of laboratory and performance-based assessment techniques that have been used in research with children who have severe conduct problems. Many of these techniques have proven useful for monitoring the effects of interventions, which seems to be their most immediate clinical use. With further development, several of these techniques have the potential for assessing clinically important processes that may be involved in the development and maintenance of conduct problems in youth, especially processes that may differ across subgroups of children with conduct disorders (CDs). The assessment of such processes could contribute to the development of individualized treatment plans for children and adolescents with CDs. However, a number of theoretical, methodological, and ethical issues limit the clinical utility of these laboratory and performance-based techniques in their current stages of development, especially in their contribution to making initial diagnoses of CDs. These limitations lead to very cautious recommendations for their clinical use.

The Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument as a Predictor of Institutional Maladjustment in Severe Male Juvenile Offenders

The Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument—Version 2 (MAYSI-2) is a brief triage tool designed to pinpoint youth in the juvenile justice system at risk for mental health—related difficulties. The current study investigated the relation between the MAYSI-2 and institutional maladjustment at a residential treatment facility specializing in the rehabilitation of severe male juvenile offenders. Institutional maladjustment data were collected during the first 90 days of commitment for 104 male juvenile offenders who also completed the MAYSI-2 during orientation to the facility. The Angry-Irritable subscale of the MAYSI-2 uniquely predicted severe rule violations and intensive supervision placement. However, hit rate analyses revealed a high level of false negatives for the published subscale cut scores. Implications of these and related findings are discussed.

Understanding the Association between Parent and Child Antisocial Behavior

Understanding the causes of antisocial and criminal behavior has long been a major focus of social science research. There are many reasons for this focus. First, the most severe patterns of antisocial behavior often emerge early in life and show fairly substantial continuity across the lifespan (Frick & Loney, 1999). Second, antisocial individuals operate at quite a high cost to society, both in terms of monetary costs, such as the costs of incarceration, and in terms of social costs, such as reduced quality of life for victims of antisocial acts and other persons living in crime-prone areas (Zigler, Taussig, & Black, 1992). Third, partly because of the disruptions they cause to others around them and partly due to the pervasive problems in adjustment these individuals often have, they make up a substantial number of referrals to mental health clinics, especially those clinics serving children (Frick, 1998a).

Trait Affectivity and Nonreferred Adolescent Conduct Problems

This study examined for profiles of positive trait affectivity (PA) and negative trait affectivity (NA) associated with adolescent conduct problems. Prior trait affectivity research has been relatively biased toward the assessment of adults and internalizing symptomatology. Consistent with recent developmental modeling of antisocial behavior, this study proposed that conduct problems are uniquely associated with 2 PA-NA profiles (i.e., high PA-high NA and low PA-low NA). A nonreferred sample of 109 adolescents ages 12 to 19 was recruited to assess the independent relations between rating scale measures of the PA-NA dimensions and conduct problems, controlling for related internalizing (anxiety and depression) and externalizing (hyperactivity-impulsivity) symptomatology. The results generally confirmed the proposed interaction between the PA-NA dimensions in the prediction of adolescent conduct problems.

Classification of Severe Male Juvenile Offenders Using the MACI Clinical and Personality Scales.

Classifications for severe juvenile offenders and ones that include mental health needs are lacking. Thus, in this study, adolescent male offenders (N = 652) committed to a residential facility were clustered on personality and clinical scales of the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory (Millon, 1993) into 5 groups (including 4 found in other typologies). As expected, the impulsive/reactive and psychopathy groups had more severe criminal histories and the impulsive/reactive and anxious/inhibited groups had increased suicidal behaviors and poor psychosocial functioning. The impulsive/reactive group showed expected verbal deficits. The unremarkable group lacked discernable personality/clinical problems and was unremarkable on dependent variables. A conforming group emerged that may be unique to severe juvenile offender populations. Future studies should examine institutional adjustment and outcomes among the identified groups.

Recidivism in subgroups of severe male juvenile offenders

Abstract Prior research is lacking on the incremental contribution of juvenile offender classification systems in predicting recidivism. To address this gap, the present study examined a five-group classification system of severe adolescent male offenders based on the personality and clinical scales of the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory (MACI). Group membership was used to predict adult recidivism while controlling for criminal history. Male juvenile offenders classified as anxious/impulsive were less frequent recidivists than most other groups and had fewer charges after release than some other groups. Offenders classified into the psychopathy group were notable for their high rate of recidivism (nearly 50%). These results highlight the potential utility of offender classification systems for informing risk assessments among severe male juvenile offenders.