Intergenerational Transmission of Psychopathy and Moderation via Separation from the Father and Offspring Sex.

• In Event: Longitudinal and Life Course Perspectives on the Development of Psychopathy and Antisocial Behaviour

Abstract

This study analyses data from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development to examine whether the effect of the fathers’ psychopathy on offspring psychopathy differs according to according to the amount of time he spent living in the family home when their child was growing up or the gender of the offspring. The fathers’ and their young adult offspring completed a face-to-face semi-structured social interview and were assessed using the Hare Psychopathy Checklist (PCL: SV).
The relationship between the PCL: SV scores of the fathers and their male and female G3 offspring was investigated using a multi-level linear regression model that adjusted for clustered data. The results demonstrated strong relationships between the total, Factor 1 and Factor 2 scores of fathers and both their male and female offspring. However, the effect of the father’s total and Factor 1 score was significantly greater on the male offspring’s psychopathy than for the female offspring’s psychopathy. The effect of the fathers’ psychopathy on offspring psychopathy did vary according to the number of years he spent in the family home when their offspring was growing up, but only for the female offspring, whose PCL: SV scores decreased as his presence in the home increased.

Authors

• Katherine M. Auty, Cambridge University

• David P. Farrington, Cambridge University

• Jeremy W. Coid, Queen Mary, University of London