Routine Activities and Adolescent Deviance across 28 Cultures

Purpose The current study tested the links between routine activities and deviance across twenty-eight countries, thus, the potential generalizability of the routine activities framework. Methods Data were collected as part of the Second International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD-2) from 28 cultures, from seventh, eighth, and ninth grade adolescents (N = 66,859). Routine activities were operationalized as family, peer, solitary, and community activities. Country-level predictors included unemployment rate, prison population, life expectancy, and educational attainment. Results Three-level, hierarchical linear modeling (individual, school, and country) was used to test both individual and country-level effects on deviance. Findings supported predictions by the routine activities framework, where routine activities explained 3.1% unique variance in deviance, above and beyond effects by background variables as well as low self-control. Models showed that the effects of family activities, solitary activities, and peer activities were stronger in countries with higher life expectancies. In addition, mean educational attainment increased the effect of solitary activities on deviance, while the effect of family activities on deviance was lower in countries with higher levels of unemployment. Conclusions The routine activities framework generalized across these 28 countries in how it explains deviance; some unique country-level effects were found that conditioned person-context links

Developmental Sequelae in Language, Empathy, Self-Control, and Psychopathy from Infancy to Middle Adolescence

The present empirical work aims to discern the underlying mechanisms of purported developmental links among several key human characteristics including language skills, self-control, empathy, and psychopathic traits. Accordingly, three interrelated studies are carried out testing the longitudinal associations of various kinds (e.g., direct, indirect, bidirectional) among these constructs. All three studies are conceptually framed in consideration of the extant research and relevant theories. They employ the data set provided by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of Early Child Care and Youth Development Study of N = 1,364 children followed from infancy through middle adolescence. Study 1 tested the longitudinal bidirectional associations between language development, measured by the Letter-Word Identification and Picture Vocabulary tests of the WJ-R (McGrew, 1993), and self-control, measured by the Self-Control of SRSS (Gresham & Elliot, 1990) parent- report, from age 4.5 to 10.5 years. The data were analyzed using an autoregressive cross-lagged panel model with latent variables. Findings provided limited empirical support for the proposed bidirectional effects, indicating that once initial correlation between the two constructs, as well as their temporal stability is accounted for, most directional paths become non-significant, in particular, from self-control to language. However, the paths from language development to self- control, ages 4.5 to 6.5 and 6.5 to 8.5 were statistically significant and positive, suggesting more salient directional association from language to self-control. The goal of the Study 2 was twofold. It tested 1) whether there is a common factorial structure underlying empathy, psychopathy, and self-control, and 2) it tested the three main predictors, including positive parenting, easy temperament, and general intelligence, whether these all contribute uniquely to the development of empathy, psychopathic traits and self-control. Structural equation modeling and factor analysis techniques were used the test the research hypotheses. The findings revealed that despite considerable overlap at a construct level, there was a significant unique variance that remained unaccounted. They also demonstrated that all three variables shared one common developmental antecedent, namely positive parenting during infancy and early childhood. In addition, intelligence uniquely predicted empathy and psychopathic traits but not self-control, whereas temperament did not significantly predict any of the three dependent variables examined. Study 3 examined the salience test the salience of the Eisenberg’s (2005) model of empathy development, according to which the ability for empathy stems from two main individual characteristics, temperamental regulation and emotionality. It also investigated the impact of early socialization experiences not only on adolescent empathy but also on its proposed predictors. Infancy socialization indicators included: maternal sensitivity, quality of home environment and secure attachment, assessed at 6-36 months by mother-reports and/or observational accounts. Effortful control indicators included: attentional focusing and inhibitory control; whereas negative emotionality included anger and sadness, all assessed at the age of 4.5 years. Empathy was assessed at the age of 15 by adolescent self-report measure. Findings indicated that childhood temperamental traits did not significantly predict adolescent empathy, nor their interactive effects were supported by the data. In contrast, the role of early socialization influences was evidenced by significant positive association, uniquely accounting for a considerable amount of variance explained in adolescent empathy

Childhood Maltreatment and Biological Aging in Middle Adulthood: The Role of Psychiatric Symptoms

Background: Childhood maltreatment and psychiatric morbidity have each been associated with accelerated biological aging primarily through cross-sectional studies. Using data from a prospective longitudinal study of individuals with histories of childhood maltreatment and control participants followed into midlife, we tested 2 hypotheses examining whether 1) psychiatric symptoms mediate the relationship between childhood maltreatment and biological aging and 2) psychiatric symptoms of anxiety, depression, or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) act in conjunction with childhood maltreatment to exacerbate the association of child maltreatment to aging. Methods: Children (ages 0–11 years) with documented histories of maltreatment and demographically matched control children were followed into adulthood (N = 607) and interviewed over several waves of the study. Depression, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms were assessed at mean ages of 29 (interview 1) and 40 (interview 2) years. Biological age was measured from blood chemistries collected later (mean age = 41 years) using the Klemera-Doubal method. Hypotheses were tested using linear regressions and path analyses. Results: Adults with documented histories of childhood maltreatment showed more symptoms of depression, PTSD, and anxiety at both interviews and more advanced biological aging, compared with control participants. PTSD symptoms at both interviews and depression and anxiety symptoms only at interview 2 predicted accelerated biological aging. There was no evidence of mediation; however, anxiety and depression moderated the relationship between childhood maltreatment and biological aging. Conclusions: These new findings reveal the shorter- and longer-term longitudinal impact of PTSD on biological aging and the amplifying effect of anxiety and depression on the relationship between child maltreatment and biological aging