Timothy R. Stickle

Gender Differences in Psychopathic Traits, Types, and Correlates of Aggression Among Adjudicated Youth

The current study investigated gender differences in types and correlates of aggression among 150 adjudicated youth (M age = 15.2, SD = 1.4). In cluster analysis, consistent with past studies, one aggressive group characterized by moderate levels of reactive aggression and one characterized by high levels of proactive and reactive aggression emerged and these patterns were consistent across gender. For both boys and girls, the combined proactive/reactive aggression cluster showed the greatest levels of aggression, impulsivity, and callous-unemotional traits, supporting a severity over a typology model of proactive and reactive aggression. Girls displayed significantly higher rates of physical and relational aggression than boys. Girls were highly aggressive toward both girls and boys, whereas boys were highly aggressive only toward other boys. Girls also showed multiple indications of severity and emotionality, indexed by higher rates of negative affect, anxiety, distress about social provocations, and empathy.

Callous-Unemotional Traits and Social Information Processing: Multiple Risk-Factor Models for Understanding Aggressive Behavior in Antisocial Youth

This study examined multiple risk factor models of links among callous-unemotional traits, aggression beliefs, social information processing, impulsivity, and aggressive behavior in a sample of 150 antisocial adolescents. Consistent with past research, results indicated that beliefs legitimizing aggression predicted social information processing biases and that social information processing biases mediated the effect of beliefs on aggressive behavior. Callous-unemotional traits accounted for unique variance in aggression above and beyond effects of more established risk factors of early onset of antisocial behavior, social information processing, and impulsivity. These findings add to recent research showing that callous-unemotional traits are a unique risk factor associated with aggression and criminal offending and suggest that targeting both affective and cognitive vulnerabilities may enhance clinical intervention with antisocial youth.

Aggression and Fire: Antisocial Behavior in Firesetting and Nonfiresetting Juvenile Offenders

This study examined the association between firesetting and antisocial behavior in 219 juvenile offenders. The study showed, through a series of a priori model comparisons using confirmatory factor analysis, that reliable data on both firesetting (n = 85) and nonfiresetting (n = 134) juvenile offenders best fit a 3-factor model composed of aggressive, nonaggressive, and oppositional antisocial behavior. Although the same general structure of antisocial behavior best fit the data for both groups, the firesetting group exhibited a significantly higher variety and frequency of aggressive and total antisocial acts and an earlier age of index arrest. It is argued that results from this study support a conceptualization of firesetting as accompanying serious and versatile antisocial behavior. Consistency with an early starter pattern of antisocial behavior among firesetting offenders is noted, and evidence suggesting that firesetting is indicative of developmentally advanced, serious, and varied antisocial behavior among troubled youth is discussed.

School Children's Consumption of Lower-Calorie Flavored Milk: A Plate Waste Study

During January 2011, the US Department of Agriculture issued proposed regulations with substantial changes to nutrition standards for school foods and beverages to improve the healthfulness of school meals. Milk availability is limited to fat-free or 1% white milk and fat-free flavored milk. Most elementary school students choose flavored milk. Milk processors are lowering the calories provided by flavored milks by reducing the fat and/or added sugars content. Milk is an important source of shortfall nutrients; thus, it is important to know how children accept these new milks. Four schools in the northeast and south serving lower-calorie flavored milk (≤150 kcal/8 oz) were selected for a quasi-experimental plate waste study. Five control schools serving standard flavored milk (>150 kcal/8 oz) were enrolled from the same regions. During May and June 2010, flavored milk cartons were collected from 793 third- to fifth-grade students after lunch and individually weighed to determine consumption. Overall, students consumed an average of 5.52±0.10 oz flavored milk. Students consumed an average of 5.88±0.12 oz standard flavored milk (n=497) compared with an average of 4.92±0.17 oz lower-calorie flavored milk (n=296). Using linear mixed models, we found that children drinking standard milk were more likely to consume >7 oz, although the difference was not significant (P=0.09). After adjusting for group differences in socioeconomic status, region, and sex, no differences in consumption were detected (P=0.29). Because none of these milks were in full compliance with proposed regulations, milk consumption should be further monitored.

Developmental pathways to severe antisocial behavior: interventions for youth with callous–unemotional traits

There is an emerging body of research that has focused on understanding the different causal pathways through which children develop severe aggressive and antisocial behavior. In addition, there is a substantial body of research indicating that certain models of intervention have some demonstrated level of effectiveness for preventing and treating antisocial behavior, albeit with some significant limitations. The focus of this paper is to integrate these two bodies of research in an effort to improve the effectiveness of the next generation of interventions for antisocial youth, especially those designed to prevent and treat certain subgroups of antisocial youth who have largely been unresponsive to existing approaches to intervention. One such group consists of those antisocial youths who show a callous and unemotional interpersonal style and who seem to be at risk for showing a particularly severe and aggressive pattern of antisocial behavior.

Factor mixture model of anxiety sensitivity and anxiety psychopathology vulnerability

BACKGROUND The purpose of the present study was to shed light on the latent structure and nature of individual differences in anxiety sensitivity (AS) and related risk for psychopathology. METHODS The present study evaluated the latent structure of AS using factor mixture modeling (FMM; Lubke and Muthén, 2005) and tested the relations between the observed FMM-based model of AS and psychopathology in a large, diverse adult clinical research sample (N=481; 57.6% women; M(SD)(age)=36.6(15.0) years). RESULTS Findings showed that a two-class three-factor partially invariant model of AS demonstrated significantly better fit than a one-class dimensional model and more complex multi-class models. As predicted, risk conferred by AS taxonicity was specific to anxiety psychopathology, and not to other forms of psychopathology. LIMITATIONS The sample was not epidemiologic, self-report and psychiatric interview data were used to index AS and psychopathology, and a cross-sectional design limited inference regarding the directionality of observed relations between AS and anxiety psychopathology. CONCLUSIONS Findings are discussed with respect to the nature of AS and related anxiety psychopathology vulnerability specifically, as well as the implications of factor mixture modeling for advancing taxonomy of vulnerability and psychopathology more broadly.

Psychological evaluation of the emotional effects of a community toxic exposure.

Objective:We sought to assess the emotional effects of a major community toxic release while controlling the potential effects of response bias associated with litigation. Methods: Participants included 152 exposed adult litigants and a matched unexposed comparison group (n = 76). Psychological assessment methods included: (1) Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2; (2) Symptom Checklist-90-Revised; and (3) Impact of Event Scale-Revised. Results:Ten to 40% of the exposed group demonstrated emotional distress (compared with a 5% comparison baseline) depending on indicator and cutoff score used. Conclusions:The psychological consequences of a community toxic exposure were present even when exaggeration was carefully controlled. Accounting for exaggeration in the assessment of subjective psychological complaints provides a more accurate view of the subjective emotional state of persons who have experienced toxic exposure thereby facilitating appropriate clinical management of their mental health needs.

Victimization, substance use, and sexual aggression in male adolescent sexual offenders

Relations among childhood victimization, substance use prior to the commission of a sexual offense, and force used during a sexual offense were examined in a sample of residentially based, male juvenile sex offenders (n = 406; Mage = 16.6). Marshall and Marshall’s (2000) theory of sex offending proposes that childhood victimization, among other factors, creates a vulnerability to offend, which when paired with disinhibition (e.g., from substance use) may lead to sexual offending. Guided by this theory, we examined whether substance use prior to the commission of a sexual offense mediated the relation between trauma and force used in sexual offending. Six mediation analyses were used to examine subtypes of childhood victimization and the effects of cumulative victimization. Results provided support for partial mediation of substance use prior to a sexual offense on the effects of cumulative victimization on force used during a sexual offense. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.

Isolating Trait and Method Variance in the Measurement of Callous and Unemotional Traits

To examine hypothesized influence of method variance from negatively keyed items in measurement of callous–unemotional (CU) traits, nine a priori confirmatory factor analysis model comparisons of the Inventory of Callous–Unemotional Traits were evaluated on multiple fit indices and theoretical coherence. Tested models included a unidimensional model, a three-factor model, a three-bifactor model, an item response theory–shortened model, two item-parceled models, and three correlated trait–correlated method minus one models (unidimensional, correlated three-factor, and bifactor). Data were self-reports of 234 adolescents (191 juvenile offenders, 43 high school students; 63% male; ages 11-17 years). Consistent with hypotheses, models accounting for method variance substantially improved fit to the data. Additionally, bifactor models with a general CU factor better fit the data compared with correlated factor models, suggesting a general CU factor is important to understanding the construct of CU traits. Future Inventory of Callous–Unemotional Traits analyses should account for method variance from item keying and response bias to isolate trait variance.

The Feasibility of Teacher and Parent Volunteers Collecting Digital Image Data of Children's Fruit and Vegetable Consumption during School Lunch

Increasing childrens fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption is an aim of school nutrition programs. Digital imaging (DI) is less time and resource intensive than other dietary assessment tools for evaluating whether these efforts correspond with increased FV consumption or waste. However, it is impractical for a university-based trained dietary assessment team (UDAT) to collect DI data nationally. The study objective was to compare the feasibility of DI data collection by the UDAT to a parent volunteer dietary assessment team (PDAT) and a teacher dietary assessment team (TDAT) at two northeast elementary schools (NES-A and NES-B, respectively) across 19 data collection days. Uniquely labeled lanyards were distributed to children as they entered the cafeteria to allow for the formation of a matched DI pair: pre-image of the lunch tray as the child exited the lunch line (FV selection) and a post-image of the tray before disposal (FV waste). Feasibility was defined as the number of DI pairs captured out of th...