Drinking severity mediates the relationship between hypothalamic connectivity and rule-breaking/intrusive behavior differently in young women and men: an exploratory study.

Background: The hypothalamus is a key hub of the neural circuits of motivated behavior. Alcohol misuse may lead to hypothalamic dysfunction. Here, we investigated how resting-state hypothalamic functional connectivities are altered in association with the severity of drinking and clinical comorbidities and how men and women differ in this association. Methods: We employed the data of the Human Connectome Project. A total of 870 subjects were included in data analyses. The severity of alcohol use was quantified for individual subjects with the first principal component (PC1) identified from principal component analyses of all drinking measures. Rule-breaking and intrusive scores were evaluated with the Achenbach Adult Self-Report Scale. We performed a whole-brain regression of hypothalamic connectivities on drinking PC1 in all subjects and men/women separately and evaluated the results at a corrected threshold. Results: Higher drinking PC1 was associated with greater hypothalamic connectivity with the paracentral lobule (PCL). Hypothalamic PCL connectivity was positively correlated with rule-breaking score in men (r=0.152, P=0.002) but not in women. In women but not men, hypothalamic connectivity with the left temporo-parietal junction (LTPJ) was negatively correlated with drinking PC1 (r=-0.246, P<0.001) and with intrusiveness score (r=-0.127, P=0.006). Mediation analyses showed that drinking PC1 mediated the relationship between hypothalamic PCL connectivity and rule-breaking score in men and between hypothalamic LTPJ connectivity and intrusiveness score bidirectionally in women. Conclusions: We characterized sex-specific hypothalamic connectivities in link with the severity of alcohol misuse and its comorbidities. These findings extend the literature by elucidating the potential impact of problem drinking on the motivation circuits.

Investigating the impact of lumping heterogenous conduct problems: aggression and rule-breaking rely on distinct spontaneous brain activity.

Accumulating evidence suggests that aggression and rule-breaking may have distinct origins. However, grouping these heterogeneous behaviors into a single dimension labelled Conduct Problems (CP) has become the norm rather than the exception. Yet, the neurobiological features that differentiate aggression and rule-breaking remain largely unexplored. Using a large sample of children and adolescents (n = 1360, 6-18 years old), we examined the common and specific brain activity between CP, aggression, and rule-breaking behaviors. Analyses were conducted using fMRI resting-state data from a 10-minute session to explore the correlations between low frequency fluctuations and both broad and fine-grained CP dimensions. The broad CP dimension was associated with deficits in the precentral gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, and tempo-parietal junction. However, only the superior temporal gyrus was shared between aggression and rule-breaking. Activity of the precentral gyrus was mainly associated with rule-breaking, and the temporo-parietal cortex with aggression. More importantly, voxel-wise analyses on fine-grained dimensions revealed additional specific effects that were initially obscured when using a broad CP dimension. Finally, we showed that the findings specific to aggression and rule-breaking may be related to distinct brain networks and mental functions, especially ventral attention/sensorimotor processes and default mode network/social cognitions, respectively. The current study highlights that aggression and rule-breaking may be related to distinct local and distributed neurobiological markers. Overall, using fine-grained dimensions may provide a clearer picture of the role of neurobiological correlates in CP and their invariance across measurement levels. We advocate for adopting a more thorough examination of the lumping/splitting effect across neuroimaging studies on CP.

Do Moral Emotions Interact with Self-Control and Unstructured Socializing in Explaining Rule-Breaking Behavior Committed Together with Friends?

Previous research has shown that moral emotions interact with self-control and unstructured socializing in explaining rule-breaking behavior. High levels of moral emotions appear to weaken the effects of both self-control and unstructured socializing, in explaining rule-breaking behavior. The current study examined whether these interactions also affect rule-breaking behavior that is explicitly committed with friends. In addition, three operationalizations of moral emotions were distinguished. Data were collected from N = 169 adolescents (54% female; mean = 14.95 years; SD = 1.7) using a self-report questionnaire battery. Results indicate that high levels of anticipated emotions in moral conflicts (AEMC) attenuate the effect of low self-control on one's own rule-breaking behavior. In contrast, high levels of both guilt- and shame-proneness enhanced the effect of unstructured socializing on one's own and rule-breaking with friends. The limitations of the study, ideas for future research, and practical implications are also discussed.

Improving compliance around protected areas through fair administration of rules.

Protected area management often depends heavily on law enforcement to secure compliance with rules. However, this can contribute to conflict between protected area authorities and local people, negatively affecting both human well-being and conservation outcomes. Compliance is affected by many factors, including whether those who enforce rules are perceived to do so fairly, as well as the perceived rule-related behavior of others. We used factorial survey experiments to explore how fair respondents living around protected areas in Indonesia and Tanzania perceive sanctions distributed by law enforcers to be. We presented scenarios to respondents to assess how crime type, offender characteristics, and corruption influenced their judgments regarding the fairness of administered sanctions. We also assessed how descriptive norms and corruption influenced individuals' willingness to obey protected area rules. Data were collected from 229 people in Indonesia and 217 in Tanzania. Results showed that in both locations, lawful sanctions, such as arrests or warnings, were perceived as fairer, and sanctions that involved corruption were perceived as least fair. Attitudes toward protected area rules, corruption, and descriptive norms all influenced people's willingness to comply, whereas multidimensional poverty did not. Our results highlight the need for conservation policy and practice to move beyond narratives that focus on the need for more law enforcement. To improve protected area compliance and secure better outcomes for people and nature, conservation must focus on ensuring the fair administration of rules and enhancing the legitimacy of rules themselves.

Mejoras en el cumplimiento alrededor de las áreas protegidas mediante la administración imparcial de reglas Resumen El manejo de áreas protegidas casi siempre depende de la aplicación de la ley para asegurar el cumplimiento de las reglas. Sin embargo, esto puede contribuir al conflicto entro las autoridades de las áreas protegidas y los locales, lo que afecta negativamente al bienestar humano y a los resultados de conservación. El cumplimiento se ve afectado por muchos factores, incluido si se percibe que quienes aplican las reglas lo hacen de manera imparcial, así como el comportamiento relacionado a las reglas de las demás. Aplicamos experimentos de censo factorial para explorar cómo los respondientes imparciales que viven en torno a las áreas protegidas en Indonesia y Tanzania perciben las sanciones distribuidas por los agentes de la ley. Les presentamos escenarios para analizar cómo el tipo de crimen, características del ofensor y la corrupción influyen sobre sus juicios con respecto a la imparcialidad de las sanciones administradas. También analizamos cómo las normas descriptivas y la corrupción influyen sobre la voluntad individual de obedecer las reglas del área protegida. Recolectamos los datos de 299 personas en Indonesia y 217 en Tanzania. Los resultados mostraron que, en ambas localidades, las sanciones legales, como arrestos o advertencias, eran percibidas como más justas, y las sanciones que involucraban corrupción eran percibidas como las menos justas. Todas las actitudes hacia las reglas de las áreas protegidas, la corrupción y las normas descriptivas influyeron sobre la voluntad de las personas para obedecer, mientras que la pobreza multidimensional no influyó. Nuestros resultados enfatizan la necesidad de que las políticas y prácticas de conservación vayan más allá de las narrativas que se enfocan en la necesidad de una mayor aplicación de la ley. Para incrementar el cumplimiento en las áreas protegidas y asegurar mejores resultados para las personas y la naturaleza, la conservación debe enfocarse en garantizar la administración imparcial de las reglas e incrementar su legitimidad.

Parliamentary standards under attack: an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the Westminster Parliament.

Healthy democracies require ethical leadership and respect for rules, but since the 2000s we have witnessed serious attacks on standards in the UK Parliament. Two narratives about scandals will reveal cultural and social aspects that are often ignored by the public, journalists and parliamentary scholars. A slow development of conditions led to a scandal over misuse of expenses in 2009, while rule-breaking in Parliament during Prime Minister Johnson's term in office emerged more suddenly, in part out of the rupture of Brexit. Making sense of these cases about standards, and the connections between them, requires a theoretical approach that goes beyond looking at the bad behaviour of individuals or rotten cultures within a malfunctioning system. In the gap between the two, you find relationships. I make an argument for a relational, cultural and historical approach within which people act in complex configurations of interdependence as both individuals and socialised actors.

Bidirectional longitudinal associations between parental self-efficacy and child rule-breaking behaviours: A random-intercept cross-lagged panel study.

Parental self-efficacy (PSE) is a pivotal determinant of change in children's adjustment. However, not only has previous research shown that PSE plays a protective role for children's rule-breaking (RB) behaviours (i.e., parent-driven process), but RB also can reduce parents' PSE over-time (i.e., child-driven process). This study examined the bidirectional longitudinal associations between PSE and RB behaviours by disentangling maternal from paternal influences and between- from within-person effects. In the present seven-wave longitudinal study involving 200 Italian children (T1: Mage = 9.80, SD = 0.65; 50.5% girls), their mothers (N = 200) and fathers (N = 190), two random-intercept cross-lagged panel models (one for mothers and one for fathers) were used to explore whether: (a) stable parts of PSE and RB were related to each other, (b) higher levels of PSE were associated with lower levels of RB at a given time point, and (c) higher levels of PSE at a given time point were associated with future lower levels of RB. Results provided evidence both for a parent- and a child-driven process between mothers' PSE and children's RB behaviours. However, these results were not replicated for fathers. Implications are discussed.

Maternal psychological control and adolescent adjustment: Sleep as a moderator.

Maternal psychological control has been linked consistently to poorer adjustment for adolescents, however, studies of variability in the association between psychological control and adjustment are rare. Sleep serves crucial bioregulatory functions that promote well-being and protect youths against poor adjustment associated with negative family environments. We hypothesised that the link between maternal psychological control and adolescent maladjustment would be strongest for youths with poorer actigraphy-based sleep. The current study included 245 adolescents (Mage = 15.79 years, 52.2% girls, 33.1% Black/African American and 66.9% White/European American; 43% at or below the poverty line). Adolescents reported on their mothers' psychological control toward them, as well as their internalising and externalising symptoms (aggressive and rule breaking behaviours). Several sleep variables were derived: minutes, onset time, and variability in each parameter over 1 week. For youths with shorter, less consistent sleep (both mean levels and variability in minutes and onset), maternal psychological control was associated with adjustment difficulties, especially externalising symptoms. This association was not significant for youth obtaining longer, more consistent sleep. The results were most evident for variability in sleep minutes and onset as moderators of effects. The findings suggest that longer and more consistent sleep is an important protective factor in the context of more controlling parenting.

Co-developmental trajectories of aggression and rule-breaking from middle childhood to early adolescence: individual and environmental predictors.

This study examined the heterogeneous co-developmental trajectories of aggression and rule-breaking from middle childhood to early adolescence, as well as how these identified, distinct trajectories related to individual and environmental predictors. A total of 1944 Chinese elementary school students in grade 4 (45.5% girls, Mage = 10.06, SD = 0.57) completed measures on five occasions across two and a half years, using six-month intervals. Findings included: (a) Parallel process latent class growth modeling revealed four distinct co-developmental trajectory groups of aggression and rule-breaking: congruent-low (84.0%); moderate-decreasing aggression and high-decreasing rule-breaking (3.8%); moderate-increasing aggression (5.9%); and moderate-increasing rule-breaking (6.3%); (b) Multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that children belonging to the high risk groups were more likely to experience multiple individual and environmental difficulties. Implications for prevention of aggression and rule-breaking were discussed.

The company you keep: The neglected role of affiliating with delinquent friends in the development of the cannabis-violence link.

A growing body of research suggests a potential role of cannabis use on aggressive behaviors. In literature on adolescents, the lack of consideration of important confounders, such as adolescent's affiliation with delinquent peers, limits the possibility to determine whether there might be a direct or indirect link between cannabis use and aggression. Therefore, we sought to examine the effect of delinquent peers on the association between cannabis use and violence. We re-analyzed data from 850 ninth graders who were followed from mid-adolescence to early adulthood. Generalized Estimations Equations (GEE) were conducted to examine whether affiliation with delinquent peers may mediate the relationship between cannabis use and violence. Cross-Lagged Panel Models were also conducted to estimate the directionality of these relationships over time. We additionally tested whether similar relationships may be identifiable when examining rule-breaking behaviors and/or alcohol use. GEE models revealed that both cannabis use and affiliation with delinquent peers were statistically associated with aggressive behaviors. Cannabis use, alcohol use and delinquent peers also predicted rule-breaking behaviors. More precisely, cross-lagged models showed that affiliation with delinquent peers played a partially mediating role in the cannabis-aggression link, and that similar cross-lagged estimates were observed when examining rule-breaking behaviors instead of aggression. Our results indicate that cannabis use may be associated with aggression as well as rule-breaking behaviors, suggesting a broader effect on conduct problems. More importantly, our study highlights the non-negligible role of affiliating with delinquent peers during adolescence.

Explaining the "parenting - callous-unemotional traits - antisocial behavior" axis in early adolescence: The role of affiliative reward.

In explaining the "parenting - callous-unemotional traits - antisocial behavior" axis, recent theoretical advances postulate a critical role for affiliative reward. Existing empirical studies focus on early childhood and the appetitive phase of the reward process (i.e. affiliation-seeking behavior) rather than the consummatory phase (i.e. affective rewards). This study focuses on experienced affiliative reward (i.e. companionship, intimacy, affection, and worth) in relation to parents and best friends in early adolescence. The Alabama Parenting Questionnaire, Network of Relationships Inventory, Inventory of Callous and Unemotional Traits, and Youth Self Report were completed by 1132 12-year-olds and analyzed via structural equation models. In this cross-sectional sample, parent-related affiliative reward mediated the path from perceived parenting practices to callousness and further to aggression and rule-breaking. Parent-related affiliative reward was also related to uncaring traits and further to aggression and rule-breaking. In contrast, friend-related affiliative reward was not a mediator in this theoretical causal chain and largely not related to perceived parenting practices or CU traits. Low parent-related experienced affiliative reward is a mechanism through which corporal punishment, poor monitoring, and low involvement translate into callousness, and therefore to aggression and rule-breaking. Friend-related affiliative reward does not yet play a role in early adolescence.

A mixed methods approach for measuring topic sensitivity in conservation.

Conservationists increasingly aim to understand human behaviour to inform intervention design. However, obtaining information from people about their behaviour can be challenging, particularly if the research topic is considered sensitive. Topic sensitivity may raise methodological, ethical, political and legal concerns which, if poorly addressed, can have significant impacts on research participants, the research process, data quality and the success of conservation outcomes that are informed by research findings. While considerable effort has been invested in developing techniques for reducing bias when collecting data on sensitive topics, less attention has been focused on identifying if, and why, a topic is sensitive.We use a mixed methods approach to explore how willing people are to discuss topics that could be considered sensitive (e.g. illegal wildlife hunting). Collecting data from people living near protected areas in Indonesia (n = 362) and Tanzania (n = 345), we developed and tested a psychometric scale to measure topic sensitivity at the respondent level and conducted group exercises (free-lists and pile sorts) to gain a deeper understanding of peoples' willingness to discuss different topics.The perceived sensitivity of topics varied both within and between the two focal contexts, with more topics being perceived as sensitive in Tanzania than Indonesia. Participants' knowledge of rules, and their experiences of living alongside protected areas affected how sensitive they considered topics to be.Mixed methods approaches can provide holistic and nuanced understanding of topic sensitivity. However, recognising that in-depth studies are not always feasible to implement, we demonstrate that methods, such as our Sensitivity Index, can easily be adapted for different contexts and deployed to rapidly obtain valuable insights on topic sensitivity, to help inform conservation research and practice.

Topic sensitivity still affects honest responding, even when specialized questioning techniques are used.

To develop more effective interventions, conservationists require robust information about the proportion of people who break conservation rules (such as those relating to protected species, or protected area legislation). Developed to obtain more accurate estimates of sensitive behaviors, including rule-breaking, specialized questioning techniques such as Randomized Response Techniques (RRTs) are increasingly applied in conservation, but with mixed evidence of their effectiveness. We use a forced-response RRT to estimate the prevalence of five rule-breaking behaviors in communities living around the Ruaha-Rungwa ecosystem in Tanzania. Prevalence estimates obtained for all behaviors were negative or did not differ significantly from zero, suggesting the RRT did not work as expected and that respondents felt inadequately protected. To investigate, we carried out a second study to explore how topic sensitivity influenced respondents' propensity to follow RRT instructions. Results from this experimental study revealed respondents understood instructions well (~88% of responses were correct) but that propensity to follow RRT instructions was significantly influenced by the behavior asked about, and the type of answer they were required to provide. Our two studies highlight that even if RRTs are well understood by respondents, where topics are sensitive and respondents are wary of researchers, their use does not necessarily encourage more honest responding.

Polygenic Effects on Individual Rule Breaking, Peer Rule Breaking, and Alcohol Sips Across Early Adolescence in the ABCD Study.

Alcohol use emerges during early adolescence and is strongly associated with individual and peer risky, delinquent, and rule breaking behaviors. Genetic predisposition for risky behavior contributes to individual rule breaking in adolescence and can also evoke peer rule breaking or lead youth to select into delinquent peer groups via gene-environment correlations (rGE), collectively increasing risk for alcohol use. Little research has examined whether genetic predisposition for risky behavior contributes to individual and peer rule breaking behavior in developmental pathways to alcohol use in early adolescence or in large diverse racial/ethnic populations. To address this, polygenic scores for risky behavior were considered predictors of individual rule breaking, peer rule breaking, and alcohol sips using data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study at age 11-12 and 12-13 in a cross-time cross-lagged model. This was examined separately in European American (EA; n = 5113; 47% female), African American (AA; n = 1159; 50% female), and Hispanic/Latinx (Latinx; n = 1624; 48% female) subgroups accounting for sociodemographic covariates and genetic ancestry principal components. Polygenic scores were positively associated with all constructs in EAs, with individual rule breaking at age 11-12 in AAs and Latinx, and with alcohol sips at age 11-12 in Latinx. Individual and peer rule breaking were associated with one another across time only in the EA subgroup. In all subgroups, peer rule breaking at 12-13 was associated with alcohol sips at 12-13. Results indicate that alcohol sips in early adolescence are associated with individual and peer rule breaking with rGE implicated in EAs.

The development of youth antisocial behavior across time and context: A systematic review and integration of person-centered and variable-centered research.

BACKGROUND: Trajectories of youth antisocial behavior (ASB) are characterized by continuity and change. Although numerous longitudinal studies have examined ASB, findings from person-centered and variable-centered research have not yet been integrated. The present paper integrates findings across statistical methods for a more comprehensive understanding of the development of ASB. Neighborhood disadvantage is considered as a core moderator. METHODS: The study protocol was registered in the PROSPERO database of systematic reviews (registration number CRD42021255820). The PsycINFO and PubMed databases were examined (September 2022) to identify longitudinal studies of youth aggression and/or rule-breaking. Results from person-centered and variable-centered studies were integrated via narrative synthesis, and a systematic quality assessment was conducted. RESULTS: Of 8227 studies identified, 136 met inclusion criteria. Our review indicated that rule-breaking trajectories were largely distinguished by differences in rate of change (i.e., slope), whereas aggression trajectories differed more by baseline level (i.e., intercept), particularly in childhood. For adolescents in disadvantaged neighborhoods, however, aggression trajectories differed by both intercept and slope. CONCLUSIONS: The respective importance of the intercept and slope differed across dimensions of ASB, developmental stage, and neighborhood residence. Neighborhood disadvantage was associated with trajectories of aggression, consistent with developmental theories emphasizing the role of person-environment interactions.

Accepting Moral Luck and Taking Responsibility in Public Health Crises.

We see cases of moral luck arising in recent times, as we face the uncertainties of provisional rules for navigating the coronavirus pandemic. How should we respond to rule-breakers, and how should they view themselves, when they cause harm inadvertently? Although some argue that guilt is unnecessary for any harm that may result from luck, this paper takes moral luck seriously and encourages consideration of the benefits to be achieved by expressions of self-blame amidst troubling circumstances, from pure accidents to how we live during pandemics. It argues that rule-breakers in public health crises show us the importance of taking responsibility for our actions.

Relationship between family income and trajectories of adjustment in adolescence: Sleep and physical activity as moderators.

INTRODUCTION: Youth from lower-income families experience adjustment problems at higher rates than higher-income peers. While adolescents have little control over family income, they do have some agency over their sleep and physical activity, two factors that have been shown to mitigate the risk of maladjustment. To test this, sleep and physical activity were examined as moderators of the longitudinal relationship between family income (indexed by income-to-needs ratio) and trajectories of adolescent adjustment problems. METHODS: Participants included a socioeconomically diverse community sample of 252 US youth (53% female; 33% Black, 67% White) in 2012-2015. Actigraphy-based sleep duration and quality were indexed, respectively, by minutes (sleep onset to wake excluding awakenings) and efficiency (% minutes scored as sleep from onset to wake). Physical activity and adjustment were youth-reported. Outcomes included internalizing (anxious/depressive) and rule-breaking behavior. Latent growth models estimated trajectories of adjustment across ages 16 and 18 years conditional on family income, sleep, physical activity, and their interactions. RESULTS: Relationships between family income and change in internalizing symptoms were moderated by sleep minutes, and associations between income and change in internalizing symptoms and rule-breaking behavior were moderated conjointly by sleep efficiency and physical activity. CONCLUSIONS: Under conditions of high-quality sleep and more physical activity, adolescents with lower income reported fewer adjustment problems. Conversely, youth with both poor sleep and low physical activity were at the highest risk for maladjustment over time. Findings enhance understanding of individual differences in trajectories of mental health associated with bioregulation, health behaviors, and the sociocultural context.

Psychometric properties of a short self-report measure of rule-breaking behaviour among adolescents: findings from the Ungdata survey.

BACKGROUND: The aim of the present study was to examine the factor structure and reliability of a six-item scale of rule-breaking behaviour, and to test for measurement invariance across gender, age, survey year and geographical location. METHODS: Data were from three yearly cross-sectional and population-based collections of the Ungdata surveys (2017 to 2019) including a total of 297,102 Norwegian adolescents aged approximately 13 to 19 years. Measurements included respondent's rule-breaking behaviour, time, gender, age and geographical location. RESULTS: Confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated that a one-factor solution of the rule-breaking behaviour scale had good fit to data (comparative fit index 0.98; Tucker-Lewis index 0.96; root mean square error of approximation 0.049 (95% confidence interval 0.048, 0.050)), with factor loadings ranging from 0.60 to 0.81 for all items (mean factor loading 0.72). Similar results were found across survey years for both genders. Several multiple group confirmatory factor analyses showed indications of measurement invariance for the scale across gender, age groups, geographical locations and survey years. The ordinal alpha and omega coefficients for internal consistency of the scale were both 0.86. CONCLUSIONS: The six-item scale for self-reported rule-breaking behaviour demonstrated good psychometric properties and appears to constitute a reliable measure of adolescent rule-breaking behaviour for use in population-based surveys in a Norwegian setting.

Immune moral models? Pro-social rule breaking as a moral enhancement approach for ethical AI.

We are moving towards a future where Artificial Intelligence (AI) based agents make many decisions on behalf of humans. From healthcare decision-making to social media censoring, these agents face problems, and make decisions with ethical and societal implications. Ethical behaviour is a critical characteristic that we would like in a human-centric AI. A common observation in human-centric industries, like the service industry and healthcare, is that their professionals tend to break rules, if necessary, for pro-social reasons. This behaviour among humans is defined as pro-social rule breaking. To make AI agents more human-centric, we argue that there is a need for a mechanism that helps AI agents identify when to break rules set by their designers. To understand when AI agents need to break rules, we examine the conditions under which humans break rules for pro-social reasons. In this paper, we present a study that introduces a 'vaccination strategy dilemma' to human participants and analyzes their response. In this dilemma, one needs to decide whether they would distribute COVID-19 vaccines only to members of a high-risk group (follow the enforced rule) or, in selected cases, administer the vaccine to a few social influencers (break the rule), which might yield an overall greater benefit to society. The results of the empirical study suggest a relationship between stakeholder utilities and pro-social rule breaking (PSRB), which neither deontological nor utilitarian ethics completely explain. Finally, the paper discusses the design characteristics of an ethical agent capable of PSRB and the future research directions on PSRB in the AI realm. We hope that this will inform the design of future AI agents, and their decision-making behaviour.

The intergenerational effects of paternal incarceration on children's social and psychological well-being from early childhood to adolescence.

The present study sought to unravel the psychological processes through which mass incarceration, specifically paternal incarceration, is negatively affecting the next generation of children. Data came from 4,327 families from 20 cities who participated in a 10-year longitudinal study. Parents and children reported on children's rule-breaking behaviors and depressive symptoms when they were on average ages 5 (2003-2006), 9 (2007-2010), and 15 (2014-2017). Parental surveys and disposition information were combined to assess paternal incarceration at each age. Results showed that children who experienced paternal incarceration at age 5 also demonstrated more rule-breaking behaviors at age 15. Children's age-9 depressive symptoms partially mediated our finding, such that children who experienced paternal incarceration at age 5 also showed greater depressive symptoms at age 9, which in turn predicted greater rule-breaking behaviors at age 15. Paternal incarceration predicted future rule-breaking behaviors more strongly than did other forms of father loss. Because we found paternal incarceration during childhood is associated with worsened adjustment into adolescence, we discussed the need for developmentally appropriate practices in the criminal justice system.

Prosocial rule breaking, ingroups and social norms: Parental decision-making about COVID-19 rule breaking in the UK.

The British public generally adhered to COVID-19-related restrictions, but as the pandemic drew on, it became challenging for some populations. Parents with young children were identified as a vulnerable group. We collected rich, mixed-methods survey data from 99 UK-based parents (91 mothers) of children under 12, who described their lockdown transgressions. Household mixing was the most prevalent broken rule. Template analysis found that rule breaking was driven by 'ingroup-level' prosocial motivations to protect the mental and social health of family and loved ones, and that parents were 'engaged' decision-makers who underwent careful deliberation when deciding to break rules, making trade-offs, bending rules, mitigating risks, reaching consensus, and reacting to perceived rule injustices. Cumulative link models found that the perceived reasonableness of rule violations was predicted by social norms. Rules were broken by parents not for antisocial reasons, but for 'ingroup-level' prosocial reasons, linked to supporting loved ones.