Frédéric Declercq

Recalled parental bonding, adult attachment style, and personality disorders in child molesters: A comparative study

This article studies recalled parental bonding, adult attachment style, and personality disorders in child molesters and reports on the findings of two separate studies. The first study examines differences between a group of 84 child molesters and 80 matched normal control subjects. This study found that the antisocial and the schizoid personality disorders are typical for the molester group, and that at an interpersonal level this group can be typified by recollections of an uncaring father and mother, recollections of an elevated level of autonomy emanating from the father, and insecure current attachment patterns. The second study compares a subgroup of personality-disordered child molesters to a subgroup without personality disorders. This study revealed that recollections of the role of the father in parenting are decisive. The personality-disordered group reports that the father was both more uncaring and granted more autonomy. Regarding current adult attachment style, an avoidant and anxious-ambivalent attachment style characterised the disordered subgroup. We argue that the results can be useful for treatment. Since recalled parental experiences play a role in the development of personality disorders and child molestation, psychotherapists should integrate interpersonal tools into treatment, especially in therapeutic work with child molesters who received less parental sensitivity and suffer from personality disorders.

The Youth Psychopathic Trait Inventory: factor structure and antisocial behaviour in non-referred 12–17-year-olds

This paper extends previous research into the psychometric qualities of the Youth Psychopathic Trait Inventory (YPI) and the relationship of YPI scores with age, gender, and self-reported antisocial behaviour in a community sample. The results of a confirmatory factor analysis are in line with the former research, as they support a three-factor structure with good fit indices for 12–17-year-olds, thus suggesting that the YPI is useful for these age categories. The present findings also reveal a strong positive association between self-reported delinquency and psychopathic traits, as the latter are associated with serious and versatile antisocial behaviour in both genders. Gender and age differences emerged in the prevalence of psychopathic traits and the dynamics underlying antisocial behaviour.

The Dula Dangerous Driving Index: An investigation of reliability and validity across cultures

The aim of this study is to further establish the validity and reliability of the Dula Dangerous Driving Index (DDDI). The reliability and validity of the instrument was investigated by comparing data from a US university sample, a US community sample, and a sample of Belgian traffic offenders. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis supported the presence of a four-factor structure with items for Drunk Driving forming a separate scale apart from items for Risky Driving, Negative Cognitive/Emotional Driving and Aggressive Driving. A multi-group confirmatory factor analysis with model constraints supported the validity of the DDDI. Inter-correlations revealed that the DDDI subscales are closely interrelated and uni-dimensionality of the measure was found in all three samples. This suggests the DDDI Total score can be used as a composite measure for dangerous driving. However, the validity of the subscales was demonstrated in the Belgian sample, as specific traffic offender groups (convicted for drunk driving, aggressive driving, speeding) scored higher on corresponding scales (Drunk Driving, Aggressive Driving, and Risky Driving, respectively), indicating that it is clinically meaningful to differentiate the subscales.

Alexithymia and posttraumatic stress: subscales and symptom clusters.

This study examined the relationship between the emotion-regulating factor alexithymia and the occurrence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after critical incidents in a nonclinical sample of 136 nurses and ambulance personnel working in military facilities. The results showed that alexythima accounts for variance in PTSD symptoms. Breaking PTSD into its 4 symptom clusters, alexithymia was found to predict numbing and hyperarousal symptoms but not avoidance or reexperiencing symptoms. Finally, the rarely investigated, but clinically relevant, distinctive subdimensions of alexithymia were examined in relation to the 4 PTSD clusters. The difficulty identifying feelings subscale contributed most to the numbing and hyperarousal PTSD subscales. Clinical implications and future research directions are discussed.

Frequency of and subjective response to critical incidents in the prediction of PTSD in emergency personnel

In this study, the authors compared the respective contribution of an individuals subjective response and the frequency of exposure to critical incidents to the development of symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a sample of 136 nurses and ambulance personnel working in military facilities. They found no relationship between the frequency of encountered critical incidents and the occurrence of PTSD symptoms. The subjective response to a stressor contributed to the development of PTSD symptoms and was most strongly associated with intrusion, partial eta squared =.23, and hyperarousal symptoms, partial eta squared =.16. Stressors that elicited the most intense affects within this population were those involving children and those where workers encountered limitations in supplies and resources.

Psychopathy and predatory violence in homicide, violent, and sexual offences: Factor and facet relations

Purpose. Evidence has been found pointing to a relationship between psychopathy and predatory violence. The present study investigated the violence mode and its relationship with psychopathy on factor as well as on facet levels. It was hypothesized that predatory violence would be related to the affective and/or interpersonal facets of psychopathy.Asubsidiaryhypothesiswasthatsexualoffencescouldalsobedifferentiated by means of violence mode. Methods. Participants were 82 male inmates convicted of a violent crime, a sexual crime, or a homicide. Psychopathy was assessed with the Hare PCL-R2 and the violence mode was assessed by means of Cornell’s Aggressive Incident Coding Sheet, based on interviews with the offenders and a review of the official record. Results. On the psychopathy subcomponent level, only the interpersonal facet was positively related with predatory violence. This association makes sense considering that psychopaths’ interactions with others are defined by gradients of power and control and narcissistic gratification, rather than by attachment patterns. By contrast, the antisocial facet was associated negatively with predatory violence. Our subsidiary hypothesis concerning the possibility of differentiating sexual violence on the basis of the two violence modes was not confirmed. Conclusions. The present results add to the growing evidence that predatory violence is related to the personality traits of psychopathy rather than to its life-style and antisocial characteristics. Therefore, a risk analysis of future predatory violent behaviour might benefit from the inclusion of the assessment of the personality facets of psychopathy instead of focusing solely on the antisocial behaviour.

Psychoanalytic Single Cases Published in ISI-Ranked Journals: The Construction of an Online Archive

nique (e.g. music therapy, bodypacking, wilderness therapy, etc. were not included), (3) the case study is either the focus of the article or an illustrative vignette of sufficient size (more than 50% of the publication or longer than five pages), (4) the case study is written in English, French, or German, and (5) the case study presents an original analysis of therapeutic data. Four hundred and fifty-three cases were selected according to these criteria. The full text of 8 cases could not be obtained. The full texts of the remaining 445 articles were screened with the Inventory of Basic Information in Single Cases (IBISC), an ad hoc constructed inventory that assesses the presence of basic information on research method, patient, therapist, and therapy. The IBISC, the IBISC manual, and the full results of the screening are available at www.singlecasearchive.com. What follows is a concise overview of salient results of the screening.

Interpersonal Factors and Personality Disorders as Discriminators Between Intra-Familial and Extra-Familial Child Molesters

This article presents the results of research investigating the relation between interpersonal factors and personality disorders and intra-familial versus extra-familial child molesters. The sample contained 41 intra-familial and 43 extra-familial child molesters as well as a matched comparison group of 80 subjects. The analysis of the research results show that interpersonal factors, such as parental sensitivity, trust, and adult romantic attachment, discriminate between intra-familial and extra-familial child molesters. These findings structure the heterogeneous field of child molesters, as intra-familial child molesting seems to be related to relational attitude as well as personality disorders, whereas extra-familial child molesting is mainly related to personality disorders without showing significant deficits in the interpersonal factors that were measured. These results contribute to the explanation of this deviant sexual conduct and to the development and differentiation of the treatment of child molesters.

Assessing Psychopathic Traits and Criminal Behavior in a Young Adult Female Community Sample Using the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale†

This study assessed psychopathic traits in a nonforensic female population (N = 343). Respondents completed the Self‐Report Psychopathy Scale‐4: Short Form (SRP‐SF) and also reported on their Criminal Behavior. The results revealed relatively higher scale elevations for the Interpersonal and Lifestyle SRP‐SF facets, compared to the Affective and Antisocial facets. Also, those with a history of Criminal Behavior had significantly higher SRP‐SF facet scores on all four psychopathy domains, compared to those without such history. Consistent with a number of previous studies, the structural equation modeling results revealed good fit for the four‐factor SRP‐SF model. In addition, a super‐ordinate SRP‐SF factor, which accounted for the majority variance of all four SRP‐SF first‐order factors, also accounted for 50% of the variance in a latent Criminal Behavior factor. Taken together, findings support use of the SRP‐SF to assess psychopathic features in a moderately large sample of Belgium women.

A Case Study of Paternal Filicide-Suicide: Personality Disorder, Motives, and Victim Choice

ABSTRACT Although evidence with respect to its prevalence is mixed, it is clear that fathers perpetrate a serious proportion of filicide. There also seems to be a consensus that paternal filicide has attracted less research attention than its maternal counterpart and is therefore less well understood. National registries are a very rich source of data, but they generally provide limited information about the perpetrator as psychiatric, psychological and behavioral data are often lacking. This paper presents a fully documented case of a paternal filicide. Noteworthy is that two motives were present: spousal revenge as well as altruism. The choice of the victim was in line with emerging evidence indicating that children with disabilities in general and with autism in particular are frequent victims of filicide-suicide. Finally, a schizoid personality disorder was diagnosed. Although research is quite scarce on that matter, some research outcomes have showed an association between schizoid personality disorder and homicide and violence.