Paternal Antisociality and Growth in Child Delinquent Behaviors: Moderating Effects of Child Sex and Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA)

• In Event: Examining Parental Effects on Risks for Child Psychopathology: The Role of Psychophysiological Markers

Abstract

Over the past decade, approximately 1 in every 100 youth ages 12-17 years in the U.S. was involved in at least one serious violent crime. Although many antisocial behaviors are committed by a small subgroup of early-starting offenders, the proportion of new criminal offenders grows quickly from childhood to adolescence (Moffitt, 1993). Ample research shows that children of antisocial fathers are at risk of developing delinquency, and that biological and environmental mechanisms both contribute. In this study, we take a multiple-levels-of-analysis approach to understanding child conduct problems by considering biological vulnerability and environmental risk—particularly family risk (see also Beauchaine & Hinshaw, 2016), consistent with the developmental psychopathology perspective. We extend our previous research on child conduct problems by examining interactions between (1) fathers’ antisocial behaviors, a potent risk factor for children’s externalizing progression, and (2) parasympathetic nervous system function, an established neurobiological vulnerability to externalizing behavior.

Data were drawn from a longitudinal study of 207 children (139 boys, 65.6%), ages 8-12 years (M = 9.80, SD = 1.53) at the first of three annual assessments. Fathers’ antisociality was measured via maternal reports on the Family Interview for Genetic Studies (Maxwell, 1992). At Year 1, children’s resting RSA was measured for five minutes. RSA was quantified using autoregressive (AR) spectral analysis to correct for developmental decreases in respiratory frequencies across ages 8-15. AR spectral analysis identifies the respiratory peak empirically for each individual and is therefore more accurate than estimates derived from single respiratory cutoffs (Shader et al., 2018). At Years 1, 2, and 3, child delinquent behaviors were assessed using the delinquency subscale of Youth Self Report (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001).

We sought to better understand effects of fathers’ antisociality on children’s emerging, self-reported delinquency across middle childhood and adolescence. Rather than evaluating only main effects, we also assessed theoretically informed moderators, including child sex, age, and resting RSA. As expected, associations between paternal antisocial behaviors and children’s self-reported delinquency were moderated by sex. For boys, delinquency scores were weakly associated with paternal antisocial behaviors at age 8 (Figure 1). However, boys’ delinquency scores increased steeply thereafter specifically for those who had antisocial fathers (Figure 1). In addition, associations between delinquency and paternal antisociality were largest for boys with higher resting RSA (Figure 2). For girls, growth in delinquency was unrelated to both father antisociality and resting RSA (Figure 2).

These findings (1) suggest moderating effects of children’s age, sex, and PNS function on associations between father antisocial behavior and offspring delinquency; and (2) provide possible insights into differential vulnerability among children of antisocial fathers. Our study underscores both (1) the importance of considering interactive contributions of multiple factors toward understanding development of externalizing behavior from middle childhood to early adolescence, and (2) the need for prevention and early intervention given rapid growth in self-reported delinquency among boys at an early age.

Authors

• Jia Yan, Utah State University
  Presenting Author

• Sarah Jane Schoppe-Sullivan, Ohio State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Theodore P Beauchaine, University of Notre Dame
  Non-Presenting Author