Rearrest is associated with heightened callous-unemotional traits: No moderating effect of maternal relationship quality.

OBJECTIVE: The presence of callous-unemotional (CU) traits in adolescence predisposes youth to negative behavioral and social outcomes and may be particularly damaging to youth involved in the justice system. Whereas research has shown that CU traits predict later arrest, it remains unknown whether rearrest predicts changes in CU traits and whether these associations may be modified by maternal relationship quality. The present study assessed whether being rearrested predicted changes in CU traits and whether these associations varied by maternal warmth and maternal hostility. HYPOTHESES: We hypothesized that self-reported CU traits would increase at data collection time points following rearrest. Further, we hypothesized that maternal warmth would buffer the negative effects of rearrest, whereas maternal hostility would not have a significant moderating effect on the associations. METHOD: Hypotheses were tested using a large, multisite longitudinal data set of 1,216 justice-involved male youth (Mage = 15.82 years at baseline; 47% Latino, 38% Black/African American, 15% White). Data from a series of nine interviews (across a 7-year period) were used to determine associations between rearrest at one-time point and CU traits at the subsequent time point. RESULTS: Rearrest is associated with a significant increase in CU traits. However, these associations are not moderated by either maternal warmth or maternal hostility. CONCLUSIONS: Rearrest predicts increases in a known risk factor for healthy socioemotional development among justice-involved youths (CU traits). Moreover, the way rearrest is associated with CU traits does not change depending on maternal warmth; rearrest is associated with increases in CU traits irrespective of the quality of a youth's relationship with their mother. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU) self-report version: Factor structure, measurement invariance, and predictive validity in justice-involved male adolescents.

The Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU) is a widely used measure of callous-unemotional (CU) traits that may aid in the assessment of the diagnostic specifier "with limited prosocial emotions," which has been added to diagnostic criteria for conduct disorder. Though there is substantial support for use of the ICU total score, the scale's factor structure has been highly debated. Inconsistencies in past factor analyses may be largely attributed to failure to control for method variance due to item wording (i.e., half of the items being worded in the callous direction and half worded in the prosocial direction). Thus, the present study used a multitrait-multimethod confirmatory factor analytic approach that models both trait and method variance to test the factor structure of the ICU self-report in a clinically relevant, high-risk sample of justice-involved male adolescents (N = 1,216). When comparing the fit of empirical and theoretical models, goodness of fit indices (χ² = 1105.877, df = 190, root-mean-square error of approximation = .063, comparative fit index = .916, Tucker-Lewis index = .878, standardized root-mean-square residual = .051) provided support for a hierarchical four-factor model (i.e., one overarching callous-unemotional factor, four latent trait factors) when accounting for method variance (i.e., covarying positively worded items). This factor structure is consistent with the way the ICU was constructed and with criteria for the limited prosocial emotions specifier. In addition, measurement invariance of this factor structure across age, race, and ethnicity was supported, and the predictive validity of the ICU was supported across these demographic groups in predicting self-reported antisocial behavior and rearrests over a 5-year period following an adolescent's first arrest. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Life after life: Recidivism among individuals formerly sentenced to mandatory juvenile life without parole.

In Miller v. Alabama (2012), the Supreme Court abolished mandatory juvenile life without parole (JLWOP) sentences and subsequently decided that the ruling applied retroactively (Montgomery v. Louisiana, 2016), effectively rendering thousands of inmates eligible for resentencing and potential release from prison. In its decisions, the Court cited developmental science, noting that youth, by virtue of their transient immaturity, are less culpable and more amenable to rehabilitation relative to their adult counterparts. Specifically, the Court notes adolescents' propensity for impulsive action, sensitivity to social influence, and difficulty understanding long-term consequences. Even so, these rulings raised concerns regarding the consequences of releasing prisoners who had committed heinous crimes as juveniles. Several years after the Court's decision, preliminary data are now available to shed light on rates of recidivism among those released. The current paper comprises three goals. First, we discuss the science of adolescent development and how it intersects with legal practice, contextualizing the Court's decision. Second, we present recidivism data from a sample of individuals formerly sentenced to JLWOP in Pennsylvania who were resentenced and released under Miller and Montgomery (N = 287). Results indicate that 15 individuals received new criminal charges up to 7 years postrelease (5.2%), the majority of which were nonviolent offenses. This low rate of recidivism is consistent with the developmental science documenting compromised decision-making during the adolescent years, followed by desistance from criminal behavior in adulthood. Lastly, we discuss the importance of interdisciplinary collaborations between researchers and legal practitioners, as well as critical future avenues of research in this area.

Trajectories of offending over 9 years after youths' first arrest: What predicts who desists and who continues to offend?

Antisocial and illegal behavior generally declines as youth approach adulthood, but there is significant individual variation in the timing of the peak and decline of offending from adolescence to young adulthood. There are two primary research questions in the present study. First, are there subgroups of youth who follow similar patterns of offending over the nine years after their first arrest? Second, what baseline factors predict which youth will follow each pattern of offending? Data were drawn from the Crossroads study, which includes a sample of racially and ethnically diverse boys who were interviewed regularly for 9 years following their first arrest. Boys were between 13 and 17 years old at the start of the study and were approximately 24-25 years old at the final interview. Trajectories were measured with youths' self-reported offending using latent class growth analysis (LCGA). Results indicated that there were four subgroups of youth: a stable low group (55%), an escalating group (23%), a short-term recidivist group (15%), and a persistently high group (7%). Several baseline factors distinguished the groups. In particular, the results indicated that youth who were informally processed after their first arrest were more likely to be in the low offending group than any of the other LCGA groups. Age at first arrest, peer delinquency, exposure to violence, substance use, callous-unemotional traits, physical aggression, and perceptions of police legitimacy were also significantly related to group membership. Results suggest that certain risk factors identified after youths' first arrest may predict which youth continue to offend and which desist.

Health Service Utilization in Adolescents Following a First Arrest: The Role of Antisocial Behavior, Callous-Unemotional Traits, and Juvenile Justice System Processing.

Previous research indicates that youth exhibiting antisocial behavior are at risk for utilizing a disproportionate amount of health services compared to youth without these problems. The present study investigates whether being processed by the juvenile justice system and showing callous-unemotional (CU) traits independently predict health service utilization (medical and mental health service use and out-of-home placement) over and above the severity of antisocial behavior across adolescence. A total of 766 participants who had been arrested for the first time in adolescence provided data at ten appointments over a period of seven years. Results showed that self-reported antisocial behavior at the time of arrest predicted increased use of most health service use types over the next seven years (i.e. medicine prescriptions, tests for sexually transmitted infections, mental health service appointments, and out-of-home placements). All except prescription medication use remained significant when controlling for justice system processing and CU traits. Further, justice system processing added significantly to the prediction of medical service appointments. Whereas CU traits were associated with mental health service appointments and out-of-home placements, these did not remain significant when controlling for severity of antisocial behavior. These findings are consistent with prior research documenting the health care costs of antisocial behavior.

Effects of neighborhood disadvantage and peer deviance on adolescent antisocial behavior: Testing potential interactions with age-of-onset.

Research has suggested that childhood-onset conduct problems (CPs) are more strongly related to individual predispositions, whereas adolescent-onset CP is more strongly associated with social factors, such as peer delinquency. Neighborhood disadvantage (ND) increases the risk for associating with deviant peers. Thus, peer delinquency could mediate the relationship between ND and adolescent-onset CP. This mediational hypothesis has not been tested previously. We tested this hypothesis in 1,127 justice-involved adolescent males using self-reported delinquency and official arrest records over 3 years after the youth's first arrest as outcomes. Predictors were self-reported and census-derived indicators of ND and self-reported peer delinquency. Age of onset moderated the associations between self-reported ND and arrests and between self-report of peer delinquency and arrests. In both cases, the association was stronger for those with adolescent-onset CP. Peer delinquency mediated all relationships between ND and CP. Our results also showed some unexpected differences in associations depending on whether self-reported ND or census-derived indicators were used as predictors. Specifically, census-derived ND was negatively related to self-reported offending, which could be due to the use of an arrested sample and the need for youth in more advantaged neighborhoods to show a more severe pattern of antisocial behavior to be arrested.

Examining the relation among callous-unemotional traits and cortisol, alpha-amylase, and testosterone reactivity in legal system involved young men.

Elevated callous-unemotional (CU) traits (e.g., lack of empathy, deficient guilt/remorse, and shallow affect) are associated with increased antisociality and distinct patterns of cognitive and emotional functioning. Previous investigations have suggested that deficits in physiological stress responses may underlie these associations, yet few studies simultaneously examine the multiple physiological systems responsible for mounting a stress response. To clarify how individuals with and without elevated CU traits respond to acute stress, the current study examined the association between CU traits and hormones released by three systems: cortisol from the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, alpha-amylase from the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), and testosterone from hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis. Specifically, we used fixed effect regression modeling to examine within-individual changes in each biomarker across the administration of a standardized laboratory stressor (Trier Social Stress Test) in a sample of 55 justice-involved young men (Mage= 22.84). Results indicated significant within-individual changes in cortisol, alpha-amylase, and testosterone following the stressor among those with low or average CU traits. However, those with high levels of CU exhibited no significant changes in their cortisol and testosterone levels. Furthermore, individuals with high CU traits exhibit an asymmetric stress response, such that alpha-amylase and testosterone levels were not associated with changes in cortisol levels. In sum, elevated CU traits were associated with blunted cortisol and testosterone reactivity and asymmetric response to stress. Additional work is needed to determine the behavioral and treatment implications of this distinct stress response.

Neurobiology of eating behavior, nutrition, and health.

Eating behavior and food-related decision making are among the most complex of the motivated behaviors, and understanding the neurobiology of eating behavior, and its developmental dynamics, is critical to advancing the nutritional sciences and public health. Recent advances from both human and animal studies are revealing that individual capacity to make health-promoting food decisions varies based on biological and physiological variation in the signaling pathways that regulate the homeostatic, hedonic, and executive functions; past developmental exposures and current life-stage; the food environment; and complications of chronic disease that reinforce the obese state. Eating rate drives increased calorie intake and represents an important opportunity to lower rates of food consumption and energy intake through product reformulation. Understanding human eating behaviors and nutrition in the context of neuroscience can strengthen the evidence base from which dietary guidelines are derived and can inform policies, practices, and educational programs in a way that increases the likelihood they are adopted and effective for reducing rates of obesity and other diet-related chronic disease.

Proactive and reactive aggression: Developmental trajectories and longitudinal associations with callous-unemotional traits, impulsivity, and internalizing emotions.

Research on proactive and reactive aggression has identified covariates unique to each function of aggression, but hypothesized correlates have often not been tested with consideration of developmental changes in or the overlap between the types of aggression. The present study examines the unique developmental trajectories of proactive and reactive aggression over adolescence and young adulthood and tests these trajectories' associations with key covariates: callous-unemotional (CU) traits, impulsivity, and internalizing emotions. In a sample of 1,211 justice-involved males (ages 15-22), quadratic growth models (i.e., intercepts, linear slopes, and quadratic slopes) of each type of aggression were regressed onto quadratic growth models of the covariates while controlling for the other type of aggression. After accounting for the level of reactive aggression, the level of proactive aggression was predicted by the level of CU traits. However, change in proactive aggression over time was not related to the change in any covariates. After accounting for proactive aggression, reactive aggression was predicted by impulsivity, both at the initial level and in change over time. Results support that proactive and reactive aggression are unique constructs with separate developmental trajectories and distinct covariates.

The bidirectional effects of antisocial behavior, anxiety, and trauma exposure: Implications for our understanding of the development of callous-unemotional traits.

The association of anxiety and trauma with antisocial behavior in children and adolescents has long been the focus of research, and more recently this area of research has become critical to theories of the development of callous-unemotional (CU) traits. Research suggests those with elevated CU traits and anxiety (i.e., secondary CU variant) seem to show more severe externalizing behaviors and are more likely to show histories of trauma, compared to those with elevated CU and low anxiety (i.e., primary CU variant). These findings have typically been interpreted as being indicative of distinct etiological pathways to the development of CU traits. We test an alternative explanation that the higher rates of anxiety and trauma exposure in some youth with elevated CU traits are largely a consequence of their higher levels of antisocial behavior. The current study recruited a sample of 1,216 justice-involved adolescents (Mage = 15.28, SD = 1.28) from three distinct regions of the United States, who were assessed at 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 48, and 60 months following their first arrest. Using random-intercept cross-lagged models, both antisocial behavior and CU traits predicted changes in future anxiety and CU traits predicted increases in future victimization. Further, using longitudinal parallel mediation models, antisocial and aggressive behavior largely accounted for the predictive association between CU traits and anxiety and CU traits and victimization. These results support a model in which anxiety and trauma histories may be a marker of the severity of antisocial behavior displayed by youth with elevated CU traits. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Developing Cutoff Scores for the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU) in Justice-Involved and Community Samples.

Objective: The recent addition of the callous-unemotional (CU) traits specifier, "with Limited Prosocial Emotions (LPE)," to major classification systems has prompted the need for assessment tools that aid in the identification of elevations on these traits for diagnostic purposes. The goal of the current study was to use and evaluate multiple methods for establishing cutoff scores for the multi-informant questionnaire, the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU).Method: The present study compared the clinical utility of various proposed cutoff methods and scores (i.e., empirically derived cutoffs using receiver operating characteristic (ROC), normative cutoffs, and rational scoring approximations of LPE criteria) in both a longitudinal sample of justice-involved male adolescents (N = 1,216; Mage = 15.29, SD = 1.29) and a cross-sectional sample of school children (N = 289; Mage = 11.47 years; SD = 2.26).Results: Methods resulted in a range of cutoff scores with substantial diagnostic overlap and validity. Specifically, they designated justice-involved adolescents at risk for later delinquency, aggression, and rearrests, and they designated school children more likely to be rated by parents and teacher as having conduct problems and rated by peers as being rejected and mean.Conclusions: The results lead to ranges of ICU scores that have support for their validity and can help to guide clinical decisions about children and adolescents who may be elevated on CU traits.

Perceived sleep quality predicts aggressive offending in adolescence and young adulthood.

BACKGROUND: There are profound consequences when developing youth do not get adequate sleep. Adolescents who experience poor sleep may be more likely to engage in offending behavior. While there is a documented association between the number of hours youth sleep and their likelihood of offending, it is unclear how youths' perceptions of their sleep quality contribute to offending. Further, scholars have yet to rigorously examine the relation between sleep problems and offending in young adulthood, a developmental stage, which is both critical for desistance and in which sleep may play an important role. METHODS: Using a sample of 1,216 justice-involved male youth, this study uses within-individual longitudinal methods (fixed-effects Poisson regression models) to examine the relation between changes in perceptions of sleep quality and changes in offending behavior from ages 13 to 24. RESULTS: Increases in sleep problems are associated with increases in offending, particularly aggressive/person-related offenses, for both adolescents and young adults. This holds true even after controlling for time-varying anxiety, substance use, and violence exposure. CONCLUSIONS: Improving sleep quality may be critical for reducing aggressive behavior in at-risk adolescents and young adults. Interventions that address sleep quality, and not just quantity, may be particularly beneficial.

Characterizing trajectories of anxiety, depression, and criminal offending in male adolescents over the 5 years following their first arrest.

Youth in the juvenile justice system evince high rates of mental health symptoms, including anxiety and depression. How these symptom profiles change after first contact with the justice system and - importantly - how they are related to re-offending remains unclear. Here, we use latent growth curve modeling to characterize univariate and multivariate growth of anxiety, depression, and re-offending in 1216 male adolescents over 5 years following their first arrest. Overall, the group showed significant linear and quadratic growth in internalizing symptoms and offending behaviors over time such that levels decreased initially after first arrest followed by a small but significant upturn occurring a few years later. Crucially, multivariate growth models revealed strong positive relationships between the rates of growth in internalizing symptoms and offending behaviors such that improvements in mental health related to greater decreases in offending, and vice versa. These results highlight the reciprocal nature of internalizing and externalizing problems in adolescence, underscoring the importance of considering mental health alongside offending in the juvenile justice system.

The reciprocal relations between well-being and maternal and peer warmth in adolescents involved in the juvenile justice system.

INTRODUCTION: Although justice system involvement increases the risk of negative outcomes for adolescents, many justice-involved youth desist from crime as adults (Sampson & Laub, 2005). There are few studies examining predictors of positive development in justice-involved adolescents. In the current study, we assess the influence of maternal and peer warmth on the development of well-being in adolescents involved in the US justice system over the course of 5 years. METHODS: Participants included 1216 adolescent males who experienced their first arrest. Interviews were given every year for 5 years. Well-being was measured using the EPOCH questionnaire (Kern et al., 2016) and relationship warmth was measured using a scale adapted from Conger et al. (1994). Hypotheses were tested using latent curve models with structured residuals. RESULTS: Baseline levels of well-being were associated with maternal (ß = 0.49, p < .001) and peer warmth, ß = 0.52, p < .001. When an individual's maternal warmth was higher than predicted given their maternal warmth trajectory, their subsequent well-being was higher than expected given their well-being trajectory, b = 0.07, p < .001. When an individual's peer warmth was higher than predicted, their subsequent well-being was higher than expected, b = 0.06, p < .001. These relations were reciprocal, such that well-being also predicted increased maternal and peer warmth. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that increasing maternal or peer warmth may have cascading effects on the well-being of justice-involved adolescents. Interventions for justice-involved youth may benefit from targeting factors that increase positive development for these youth.

Race Differences in the Association Between Binge Drinking and Treatment Among First-Time Justice-System-Impacted Youth.

AIMS: We aim to determine whether there are racial/ethnic differences in the association between binge drinking frequency and community-based alcohol treatment among justice-system-impacted adolescents and young adults. METHODS: We examined whether race/ethnicity moderated the relation between binge drinking and youths' likelihood of receiving alcohol treatment. The sample included 1216 male, first-time-arrested youth from the Crossroads Study (2011-2018). Participants were recruited from CA, PA and LA. RESULTS: Among youth who binge drank occasionally, Black youth were less likely to receive alcohol treatment than White (b = -0.08, 95% confidence interval [CI] [-0.13, -0.04]) and Hispanic/Latino (b = -0.06, 95% CI [-0.09, -0.02]) youth. There were no differences between the White and Hispanic/Latino youth. Black youth who were frequent binge drinkers were as likely to receive alcohol treatment as White youth who binge drank significantly less often. There were no racial/ethnic differences in alcohol treatment at the highest level of binge drinking. CONCLUSION: Black youth who binge drink occasionally are less likely than White youth to receive alcohol treatment. The present findings highlight a need for efforts to mitigate racial disparities in access to or motivations to seek community-based treatment.

Adolescent Contact, Lasting Impact? Lessons Learned From Two Longitudinal Studies Spanning 20 Years of Developmental Science Research With Justice-System-Involved Youths.

In this article, we summarize key findings from 20 years of research conducted at the intersection of developmental psychology and juvenile justice in the United States. We predominantly examine data from two large-scale, multisite longitudinal studies involving justice-system-involved adolescents-the Pathways to Desistance study and the Crossroads study. Topics of discussion include predictors of offending and desistance from crime; youth outcomes and psychosocial needs; and emerging research, programs, and policy initiatives. First, individual-level (e.g., age, psychosocial maturity) and contextual-level (e.g., antisocial peers, exposure to violence) risk factors associated with offending are explored. Second, we discuss short-term and long-term outcomes of justice-system contact for youths engaging in moderate offenses. We highlight main findings from the Crossroads study indicating that youths who are sanctioned by the justice system at their first arrest have worse outcomes than youths who are diverted from formal processing. Additionally, we discuss the high prevalence of youths' exposure to violence and mental health disorders as well as the differential treatment of youths of color in the justice system. Third, we extend the conversation to justice-system-involved young adults and discuss emerging, innovative legal solutions, including young adult courts. Last, we discuss real-world implications of these findings.

Mothers with justice-involved sons: Socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19 by neighborhood disorder in the United States.

Women, particularly mothers, have faced disparate socioeconomic consequences throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Research has yet to examine whether the consequences of the pandemic vary based on the level of neighborhood disorder, which is associated with various health conditions, including COVID-19 complications. The present study utilizes data from a diverse sample of 221 women with justice-involved sons interviewed during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Negative binominal and logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine whether perceived neighborhood social disorder is related to socioeconomic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and whether the relation varies for mothers with and without children in their home during the pandemic. The results suggest that greater perceived neighborhood social disorder was associated with increased in COVID-19-related socioeconomic consequences. Neighborhood social disorder affected socioeconomic impacts above and beyond the effects of having a child living in the home. Additionally, Latinas experienced greater socioeconomic impacts than women of other races and ethnicities. The results indicate a key relationship between the neighborhood conditions a woman lives in and the extent of the socioeconomic consequences they faced during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Future directions and direct implications of the study findings are discussed.

Psychopathic Personality in Early Childhood: A Critical Comment on Lopez-Romero et al. (2021).

A recent article published in the Journal of Personality Disorders (López-Romero et al., 2021) described the identification of "putative psychopathic personality" in a school cohort of 3-6-year-old children from Spain. This comment offers cautionary considerations of the original article on scientific grounds and critical comments on policy grounds. We caution researchers, policymakers, attorneys, judges, and the general public about the dangers of using this label given present knowledge about the antecedents, early indicators, and stability of the adult disorder of psychopathic personality when assessed in childhood.

Drug Use Homophily in Adolescent Offenders' Close Friendship Groups.

Adolescents who befriend drug using peers may be at risk for initiated and continued substance use. The present secondary data analysis examined how drug use homophily (i.e., similarity) in justice-involved boys' friendship groups relates to their subsequent substance use variety across a period of five years. Participants were 1216 first-time adolescent offenders (Mage Baseline = 15.29; 100% male). Multilevel model analyses revealed that, among participants who entered the study with a history of substance use, drug use homophily was associated with greater subsequent substance use variety. Among participants who entered the study without a history of substance use, this association was no longer significant. The findings have implications for guiding justice system programming aimed at decreasing adolescent offenders' substance use.