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Poster #57 - Life in the Fast Lane: Psychopathic Traits in Harsh Environments

Sat, March 23, 12:45 to 2:00pm, Baltimore Convention Center, Floor: Level 1, Exhibit Hall B

Integrative Statement

Individuals with psychopathic traits are said to live life in the fast lane (Jonason et al., 2010). They have more sexual partners (Jonason et al., 2009), commit riskier and more criminal behaviors (Swogger et al., 2010), and are major future discounters (Forth & Book, 2010). How do people get this way? Life history theory suggests that individuals develop in particular environments (e.g., harsh) with particular constraints (e.g., biological sex) that shape specifically who they become (Belsky et al., 1991). Thus, an important aspect of understanding how psychopathic traits manifest in youth may require thinking about the environmental circumstances that promote its expression (Farrington et al., 2010; Lynam & Gudonis, 2005). Additionally, to understand why psychopathic traits manifest at all requires appreciating that environmental signals may promote specific types of strategies that best fit the developing child to that environment (Frankenhuis et al., 2016; Panchanathan & Frankenhuis, 2016). This study examines the logic of a fast-life strategy manifesting in a risk-signalling environment by exploring interdependency between three levels of analysis: (1) environmental conditions, (2) person-level variables, and (3) behavioral outcomes; placing emphasis on how the person-level variable of psychopathy may link the other levels.

The study had 395 adolescents (165 boys, 230 girls) ranging in age from 12 to 18 (M = 14.6) complete self-report measures of environmental conditions (neighbourhood violence, parental knowledge), person-level variables (psychopathic personality traits, pubertal development), and behavioral outcomes (sexual activity, resource acquisition, aggression). Focusing on psychopathic traits as a strategy youth may adopt that links environmental conditions to specific behavioral outcomes, we expect (1) associations between psychopathy and both environmental conditions and outcome measures and (2) mediation of psychopathy between these levels.

Results show psychopathic traits were associated with both environmental condition measures: Higher neighbourhood violence and less parental knowledge (Table 1). Psychopathy was also related to faster pubertal development in both boys and girls. Lastly, psychopathic traits had positive correlations with behavioral outcomes including sexual activity, coercive resource acquisition strategies, and aggression. In two mediation analyses, psychopathy mediated the relationship between neighbourhood violence and aggression (Figure 1), as well as parental knowledge and number of dating partners, b = –2.4, CI [–7.1, –.11].

This study supports an environment–person interdependency that underpins the logic of a life history model of development (Chisholm et al., 2005); environmental conditions influence an individual’s physical (i.e., pubertal) and interpersonal (i.e., psychopathic personality) development that in turn produces specific behavioral outcomes (i.e., aggression, sexual promiscuity). Unfortunately, these behavioral outcomes likely produce the same environmental conditions that elicited them; thus, this system can be self-replicating. This cycle has implications for interventions at three levels: (1) community (policies addressing neighbourhood violence and economic development), (2) family (parenting and support programs), and (3) individual (coping strategies and emotion regulation techniques). This study supports the logic of a fast-life strategy developing in particular environments and reifies the societal problems it can produce (e.g., aggression and violence); turning the tide toward slower-life strategies will require an acknowledgement and appreciation of this logic.

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