Stressful Event Exposure as a Predictor of Antisocial Behavior: Considering Gender and Physiological Functioning

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract/Description

Environmental stressors throughout the lifespan play an important role in the development of antisocial behavior. This panel includes four empirical studies that examine the effects of stressors in predicting antisocial behavior. The stressors examined range from maternal prenatal stress, to exposure to violence, to social adversity. Two studies also examine the effects that such stressors may have on physiological measures, reflecting a biopsychosocial approach. These studies also consider how relationships may differ based on gender. The first study examines relationships between maternal prenatal stress (including exposure to a natural disaster), child resting heart rate, and externalizing behaviors. The second study examines how relationships between social adversity and aggression in children may vary by gender. The third study examines relationships between lifetime stressor exposure, an indicator of parasympathetic nervous system functioning, and psychopathic traits vary by gender. The final study examines how to exposure to violence in adolescence is associated with antisocial behavior. Together these studies provide new information about how environmental stressors may contribute to the development of aggression, including how they may affect genders differently and how they may influence biological functioning.

Sub Unit

• Area II. Perspectives on Crime / 1. Biological, Bio-social, and Psychological Perspectives 

Individual Presentations

• Prenatal Maternal Stress and Child Psychophysiology as Predictors of Externalizing Behavior in Children - AnaCristina Bedoya, University of Massachusetts Lowell; Jill Portnoy, University of Massachusetts Lowell; Yoko Nomura, Queens College, CUNY

• The Moderating Effect of Sex on the Relationship between Social Adversity and Aggression in Children - Shichun Ling, California State University, Los Angeles; Adrian Raine, University of Pennsylvania

• Stressful Life Events, Autonomic Nervous System Activity, and Psychopathic Traits - Jill Portnoy, University of Massachusetts Lowell; Presley McGarry, University of Massachusetts Lowell

• Exposure to Violence as a Victim and as a Witness Predict the Onset of Antisocial/Lifestyle Psychopathic Traits in Adjudicated Adolescents - Katherine French, Georgia State University; Frances R. Chen, Georgia State University; Abrielle Kataria, Georgia State University

Chair

• Andrea Glenn, University of Alabama