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The current study examines the effects of trait aggressiveness, inhibitory control and emotional states on aggressive behavior in a laboratory paradigm. One hundred and fifty‐one adult participants took part (73 men, 71 women, and 7 nondisclosed). Event Related Potentials (ERPs) during a Go/No‐Go task were utilized to capture the extent of inhibitory processing, with a laboratory provocation paradigm used to assess aggression. Contrary to the expectations, negative affective responses to provocation were negatively associated only with short‐lived aggression and only among those with high past aggressiveness. Furthermore, past aggressiveness was related to a continuous increase in laboratory aggressive behavior regardless of the level of inhibitory control (P3 difference amplitude). However, feeling hostile was associated with short‐lived aggressive behavior, only in those with lower levels of inhibitory control. These findings demonstrate the effect of distinct mechanisms on different patterns of aggressive behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Psychopathy Checklist—Revised (PCL‐R) is a widely used measurement of psychopathy comprising interpersonal, affective, lifestyle, and antisocial facets representing narrow‐band characteristics associated with the construct. However, there is little research on whether the distinct facets of psychopathy show specialised relationships with different types of criminal offences. The PCL‐R was administered to 138 adults incarcerated at a county jail. Arrests were coded into broad categories (i.e., crimes against persons, property or society), as well as for specific offence types (e.g. burglary, assault) using US crime definitions. Zero‐order correlations and zero‐inflated regression models showed significant relationships between: the lifestyle facet and property and societal crimes, mainly drug offences; the affective facet and crimes against persons; and the antisocial facet with all three major crime categories, as well as burglary, motor vehicle theft, robbery and assault. Overall, these results indicate that the PCL‐R facets offer unique information about specific forms of criminal behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although aggression occurs across a range of disorders, associations between dimensions of psychopathology and self‐ and other‐directed aggression are not well understood. Investigating associations between psychopathology dimensions and aggression helps further understanding about the etiology of aggression, and ultimately, can inform intervention and prevention strategies. This study adopted a multi‐method approach to examine associations between internalizing and externalizing dimensions of psychopathology and self‐ and other‐directed aggression as a function of reporter (participant and informant) and modality of aggression measurement (subjective and objective). Participants were an unselected sample of 151 racially diverse adults recruited from the community. Dimensions of psychopathology were assessed using interview and questionnaire reports from participants and collateral informants, and forms of aggression were measured via subjective reports and an objective, laboratory aggression paradigm. Analyses of participant‐reported psychological symptom data consistently linked externalizing symptoms to other‐directed aggression, and internalizing symptoms to self‐directed aggression. Results across informant and participant reporters replicated prior findings showing a significant interaction between internalizing and externalizing dimensions in predicting intimate partner violence. Most other effects in informant models were nonsignificant. The findings uncover consistency in and replicability of relationships between dimensions of psychopathology and certain manifestations of aggression and highlight the importance of examining multiple forms of aggression in etiological research. Examining aggression through a transdiagnostic lens can help us better understand and intervene upon processes implicated in devasting forms of self‐ and other‐directed aggression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Youth suicide represents an area of important public and mental health concern. Although diagnostic correlates (e.g., depression) of suicidality have been identified, very few studies of youth have analyzed relationships between empirically-derived dimensions of psychopathology, representing broader dimensions of risk, and different suicidality indicators. We recruited 223 adolescents (57% female; 32% ethnic minority) from mental health agencies and the community to assess psychopathology, substance use, and suicidality relying on multiple measures and reporters (youth, parent, and clinician). Using a 3-factor model of psychopathology, we found that the Internalizing factor (including depression and generalized anxiety) was associated with both suicidal thinking and behaviors (threats/attempts), the Externalizing factor (conduct, oppositional, and attention deficit disorders) was negatively related only to suicidal thinking, and the Substance Use factor (alcohol and cannabis use) related to suicidal behaviors of threats/attempts but not suicidal thinking. The results show the utility of a dimensional conceptualization for clarifying distinct vulnerabilities to suicidal thinking versus overt behaviors and have implications for the construct validity of distinct dimensions of psychopathology.

Research on the structure of adolescent psychopathology can provide information on broad factors that underlie different forms of maladjustment in youths. Multiple studies from the literature on adult populations suggest that 2 factors, Internalizing and Externalizing, meaningfully comprise the factor structure of adult psychopathology (e.g., Krueger, 1999) and presumably represent broad vulnerability for co-occurring disorders. Though this research was partially inspired by early work with children and adolescents (e.g., Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1984), the role of substance use in these models of youth psychopathology has not been fully explored. Toward this goal, we recruited 223 youths (10-17 years of age, M = 14.2) from mental health agencies and the community. We found evidence for a 3-factor model of youth psychopathology, including Internalizing (depression, generalized anxiety), Externalizing (conduct disorder, attention deficit, oppositional defiant disorder), and Substance Use (alcohol and cannabis). The 3-factor model showed the best fit to the data relative to other factor models tested, including across subsamples of adolescents who differed on level of psychopathology (treatment vs. community samples). Implications for the structure of adolescent psychopathology, including important developmental considerations, are discussed. (Contains 1 figure, 4 tables and 4 footnotes.)

Two studies investigated the psychometric properties of a self-report measure of commonly recognized forms of aggression (FOA) that could be used to efficiently gather aggression data in large samples. EFA and CFA in Study 1 suggested that a five-factor model (Physical, Property, Verbal, Relational, and Passive-Rational) best represented the data across high school and college students. However, factor analyses in Study 2 using an ethnically diverse university sample revealed a four-factor solution (combining Physical and Property items). As a confirmation of the construct validity of FOA, physical and property aggression were lower, and verbal and passive-rational aggression were higher in college versus high school students. Gender differences were observed across FOA subscales, except relational aggression. FOA subscales correlated as expected with other anger and personality scales. Overall, the data revealed adequate psychometric properties for the FOA and suggest that current category distinctions (e.g., direct-indirect) may not adequately account for different forms of aggression. Researchers may want to reevaluate these categories. (Contains 6 tables and 4 notes.)

The influence of personality and childhood abuse on suicidal behaviors and psychopathy was examined among female prisoners. Scores on the affective/interpersonal component (Factor 1; F1) and the antisocial deviance (Factor 2; F2) component of psychopathy were obtained from the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (R. D. Hare, 1991). Suicide attempt and childhood physical and sexual abuse history were coded from interviews and prison files, and personality was assessed using the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (A. Tellegen, in press). Suicide attempts were positively associated with F2 and negatively associated with F1, and each factor accounted for unique variance in suicidality. Path analyses demonstrated that personality mediated the effects of physical abuse on F2, but sexual abuse accounted for unique variance in both suicide attempts and F2. Abuse and personality accounted for minimal variance in F1. These results are discussed in relation to the identification of individuals at risk for both self- and other-harm behaviors.

Childhood abuse was investigated as a potential mediator of the intergenerational transmission of externalizing behaviors (EXT) in adulthood among a large general population sample drawn from the National Comorbidity Survey. Community participants (N = 5,424) underwent diagnostic and psychosocial interviews and reported on their own adult symptoms of antisocial behavior and substance dependence, parental symptoms, and childhood abuse history. Multiple group structural equation modeling revealed that (a) EXT in parents was associated with childhood abuse in offspring, particularly among mother-daughter dyads, (b) abuse had a unique influence on adult EXT in offspring above parental EXT, and (c) abuse accounted for the relationship between parental EXT and offspring EXT in female but not male participants. This article emphasizes the importance of examining different environmental processes which may explain familial transmission of destructive behaviors in men and women and highlights the importance of family interventions that target parental symptoms to ameliorate risk to offspring.

There was a large spike in gun purchases and gun violence during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. We used an online U.S. national survey (N = 1036) to examine the characteristics of people who purchased a gun between March 2020 and October 2021 (n = 103) and compared them to non-gun owners (n = 763) and people who own a gun but did not purchase a gun during the COVID-19 pandemic (n = 170). Compared to non-gun owners, pandemic gun buyers were younger and more likely to be male, White race, and to affiliate with the Republican party. Compared to non-gun owners and pre-pandemic gun owners, pandemic gun buyers exhibited extreme elevations on a constellation of political (QAnon beliefs, pro-gun attitudes, Christian Nationalism, approval of former President Donald Trump, anti-vax beliefs, COVID-19 skepticism; mean Cohen's d = 1.15), behavioral (intimate partner violence, antisocial behavior; mean d = 1.38), mental health (suicidality, depression, anxiety, substance use; mean d = 1.21), and personality (desire for power, belief in a dangerous world, low agreeableness, low conscientiousness; mean d = 0.95) characteristics. In contrast, pre-pandemic gun owners only endorsed more pro-gun attitudes (d = 0.67), lower approval of President Joe Biden (d = -0.41) and were more likely to be male and affiliate with the Republican party relative to non-gun owners. Pandemic gun buyers represent an extreme group in terms of political and psychological characteristics including several risk-factors for violence and self-harm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on relationships between family aggression (e.g., inter-parental aggression, parental abuse of children) and youth adjustment suggest that children and adolescents who grow up in violent and disharmonious families are [...], The aim of the current study was to explore distinct patterns of family aggression and their relationship to youths' self--and other-directed harm, as well as the moderating role of personality. Participants included 184 adolescents (mean age of 14) from the community and in treatment. Family aggression and self--and other-directed harm were assessed by youth and/or parent reports on various scales. Youth personality was assessed by self-report on the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire--Simplified Wording Form (MPQ-SF). A cluster analysis revealed three distinct patterns of family aggression: 1) Witness + Victim, 2) Youth as Witness, and 3) Low Family Aggression. Youth who reported being both victims of and witnesses to family aggression (Witness + Victim) reported the highest levels of self--and other-directed harm compared to Youth in the other two clusters. There was also a significant interaction between temperamental Negative Emotionality (NEM) and family aggression cluster, in that there was a dose effect of family aggression on other-directed harm at high levels of NEM. In contrast, at low levels of NEM, family aggression was not related to other-directed harm. These results suggest that specific patterns of family aggression have distinct relationships with youths' self--and other-directed harm. Further, these results highlight the role of individual differences like NEM as risky or protective depending on the family context. Keywords Violence * Suicide ideation * Cluster analysis * Negative emotionality * Constraint

Prior work has identified endorsement of gendered sexual script beliefs as predictive of sexual coercion perpetration among heterosexual individuals, primarily men. This research is lacking among sexual minority individuals and may be important in informing inclusive and effective sexual coercion prevention efforts. The current study sought to (1) assess the level of adherence to gendered sexual script beliefs, (2) report relative rates of general sexual coercion and sexual intimate partner violence (IPV), and (3) examine the relationship between gendered sexual script beliefs and self-reported sexually coercive behavior among sexual minority and heterosexual college men and women. Undergraduate students (n = 1,199; 182 sexual minorities) completed self-report measures assessing gendered sexual script beliefs, sexual coercion perpetration, and sexual IPV. Results from Gender × Sexual Minority group ANOVAs and logistic regression analyses indicated similar rates of perpetration across sexual orientation groups, with men overall reporting the most perpetration. Furthermore, men and heterosexual individuals adhered more strongly to gendered sexual scripts than women and sexual minority individuals, respectively. Results of path models revealed no moderation by sexual orientation, and that adherence to gendered sexual scripts was positively related to sexual IPV perpetration among the full sample of heterosexual and nonheterosexual individuals, though this effect was small. Gendered sexual scripts did not significantly relate to general sexual coercion perpetration among the full sample, suggesting that traditional sexual script beliefs may not be as relevant to perpetration in a contemporary college sample. This study adds to limited literature on sexual coercion perpetration among sexual minority individuals and is an important step in understanding relationships between endorsement of gendered sexual script beliefs and sexual coercion perpetration among sexual minority and heterosexual college students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous literature suggests that threat disrupts cognitive control, especially for those prone to engaging in dysregulated behaviors (i.e., maladaptive attempts at regulating stress). However, this relationship is not well understood and has yet to be directly examined. The current study extends previous literature by examining the link between individual differences in dysregulation and threat‐related alterations in neurocognitive and behavioral indicators of cognitive control. Using a diverse community sample (N = 143), we recorded participants' brain activity during a flanker task under conditions of predictable, unpredictable, and no threat‐of‐shock. Findings revealed a nuanced relationship, whereby predictable threat, relative to unpredictable threat, was associated with larger N2 to flankers, perhaps at the expense of a reduced later P3. We also found a relationship between proneness toward dysregulated behaviors and threat‐induced alterations of cognitive control, with those higher in dysregulation showing reduced conflict P3 differentiation and accuracy interference during threat vs. no threat conditions. This research expands what is known about how threat can modulate cognition in everyday life and linked it to dysregulated behaviors with high societal burden. Previous literature suggests that stress increases proneness toward rash decision‐making—especially when the stressor ("threat") is unpredictable and among those prone to dysregulated behaviors (e.g., aggression, self‐harm). There is a need to specify the cognitive mechanisms that promote threat‐related dysregulation. Our study directly examines this in a laboratory study using event‐related potential measures of cognitive control. Results offer insights on how stress impacts behavior among persons with problems of regulation, which could inform treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender is a critical explanatory variable among juvenile justice system-involved youth, with the literature showing differential protective and risk factors for serious delinquency among female and male youth. The aim of the current study is to examine gender differences in psychopathic and related traits, externalizing behaviors, and offense profiles among a sample of female (n = 76, M = 16.37 years, SD = 1.16) and male (n = 214, M = 16.40 years, SD = 1.30) youth incarcerated in Portugal. Results showed that boys tended to present significantly higher levels of psychopathic/callous–unemotional traits, conduct disorder, proactive aggression, and also lower levels of empathy. In terms of offense profiles, boys tended to present significantly higher levels of crime frequency, crime diversity, crime seriousness, days in detention, and general and violent one-year recidivism, and also lower ages of crime onset, first legal problem, and first detention. Findings support the notion that gender-informed services and supervisions are essential for understanding and intervening among justice-involved youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although prior research has examined the genetic correlates of antisocial behavior, molecular genetics influences on psychopathic traits remain largely unknown. Consequently, we investigated the influence of polymorphic variation at the serotonin transporter protein gene (SLC6A4) and socioeconomic resources (SES) on psychopathic traits in youth across two distinct samples in two separate studies. In Study 1, a main effect of serotonin transporter (5-HTTLPR) genotype was associated with the impulsivity dimension of psychopathy. That is, individuals homozygous for the short allele evidenced more impulsivity than did those homozygous for the long allele. In contrast, a gene-environment interaction was associated with the callous-unemotional and narcissistic features of psychopathy. Callousunemotional and narcissistic traits increased as SES decreased only among youths with the homozygouslong (l/l) genotype, a novel finding replicated and extended in Study 2. These studies provide preliminary results that the l/l genotype confers risk for the emotional deficits and predatory interpersonal traits associated with psychopathy among youths raised in disadvantaged environments. Keywords: psychopathic tendencies, 5-HTT, serotonin, socioeconomic status DOI: 10.1037/a0019709

The current study directly examined emotion-induced behavior dyscontrol among individuals scoring high on dysregulated tendencies, represented by impulsive-antisocial and borderline personality traits, using an emotional--linguistic go/no-go laboratory paradigm (Goldstein et al., 2007). We specifically examined the effects of these personality traits and emotional context on (a) overall behavior dyscontrol (slower reaction times [RTs] to emotional blocks relative to neutral blocks) and (b) duration of the dyscontrol (persistence or habituation of the effect of emotional context on behavior across blocks). We hypothesized that individuals high on borderline-antisocial traits would exhibit greater behavioral dyscontrol (slower RTs or lack of habituation across blocks) when responding during blocks of negative emotional cues. We also examined whether this emotional effect on behavioral control would be exacerbated by exposure to particularly salient emotional stimuli (diagnostically relevant negative affective words; e.g., abandon). Results indicated that high borderline-antisocial individuals showed greater initial behavioral control difficulties (slower RTs) to general negative affective words than to other word contents during the first block of trials, but this effect habituated by the second block. Importantly, slowed responses to diagnostically relevant word blocks persisted across time among high borderline-antisocial individuals, whereas low scorers showed habituated behavioral responses to emotional words across time. Keywords: impulsive-antisocial, borderline, personality, emotion, behavior DOI: 10.1037/a0019194

Impersonal stressors, not only interpersonal provocation, can instigate aggression through an associative network linking negative emotions to behavioral activation (L. Berkowitz, 1990). Research has not examined the brain mechanisms that are engaged by different types of stress and serve to promote hostility and aggression. The present study examined whether stress exposure elicits more left than fight frontal brain activity implicated in behavioral approach motivation and whether this lateralized brain activity predicts stress-induced aggression and hostile/aggressive tendencies. Results showed that (a) participants in the impersonal (assigned to stress by a computer) and interpersonal (assigned to stress by a provoking confederate) stress conditions both showed more left than right frontal electroencephalogram activity after condition assignment and stress exposure and (b) the 2 stress groups exhibited subsequent increases in aggression relative to the no-stress group. Importantly, left frontal asymmetry in response to stress exposure predicted increases in subsequent aggressive behavior, a finding that did not emerge in the no-stress condition. Thus, both the interpersonal and impersonal stressors impacted state changes in brain activity related to behavioral approach, suggesting that stress reactivity involving approach activation represents risk for behavioral dysregulation. Keywords: aggression, EEG frontal asymmetry, stress, approach motivation, hostility Supplemental materials: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0014376.supp

To study differences in the effects of stress exposure and affective responding on aggression in men and women, the authors examined the effects of an acute stressor (air blast) on subsequent aggressive behavior, measured as the intensity of shocks men and women delivered to a putative employee. The authors measured participants' affective responding using the startle reflex. Results showed that although men and women did not differ in their startle responses to the actual stressor, high stress led to contrasting patterns of subsequent aggressive behavior. Women under high stress responded with less aggression than women under low stress, whereas men exposed to high stress exhibited increases in aggression relative to those under low stress. Affective responding during the stressor differentially modulated aggression in men and women: Startle responses predicted increasing levels of aggression in men and less aggression in women. These findings suggest that although men and women show similar basic affective processing in response to stressors, the behavioral profiles associated with stress differ in men and women. These findings have implications for understanding gender differences in the prevalence of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. Keywords: stress, gender, aggression, startle, negative affect

Despite considerable evidence that psychopathic criminals are deviant in their emotional reactions, few studies have examined responses to both pleasurable and aversive stimuli or assessed the role of different facets of psychopathy in affective deviations. This study investigated physiological reactions to emotional sounds in prisoners selected according to scores on the 2 factors of Hare's Psychopathy Checklist--Revised (PCL-R; R. D. Hare, 1991). Offenders high on the PCL-R emotional-interpersonal factor, regardless of scores on the social deviance factor, showed diminished skin conductance responses to both pleasant and unpleasant sounds, suggesting a deficit in the action mobilization component of emotional response. Offenders who scored high only on the social deviance factor showed a delay in heart rate differentiation between affective and neutral sounds. These findings indicate abnormal reactivity to both positive and negative emotional stimuli in psychopathic individuals, and suggest differing roles for the 2 facets of psychopathy in affective processing deviations.