Adolescent psychopathic traits and adverse environments: Associations with socially adaptive outcomes.

Researchers have suggested that psychopathic traits among adults may be, at least in part, an adaptive and/or a learned response for securing socially adaptive outcomes in adverse environments, but there is a lack of developmental evidence supporting this hypothesis among adolescents. Therefore, we examined the indirect links from self-perceived adverse environments (parental neglect, socioeconomic status, school competition, neighborhood violence) to evolutionarily relevant social outcomes (social power, dating behavior) through psychopathic traits. A community sample of 396 adolescents completed measures for the study (Mage = 14.64, SD = 1.52). As predicted, there were significant indirect effects from higher levels of parental neglect, school competition, and neighborhood violence to both forms of socially adaptive outcomes through psychopathic traits, but unexpectedly, there were no indirect effects with socioeconomic status. There were also direct effects between environment and socially adaptive outcomes. Results support the hypothesis that psychopathic traits may be, in part, an adaptive and/or learned response to cues from adverse social environments as a means to acquire evolutionarily relevant social outcomes. Interventions could be designed to target the adverse social issues that might be facilitating the development of psychopathy and should be sensitive to the social outcomes adolescents may acquire from these traits.

Men's Psychopathy and Mating Effort in Intimate Relationships: Links with Jealousy and Sexual Coercion.

Psychopathic men sometimes direct sexual aggression toward prospective female partners (e.g., using sexually aggressive behavior on a first date) and such behavior may be indicative of a high mating effort strategy. Less research has investigated the role of psychopathy in men's use of sexually coercive behaviors in their intimate relationships (e.g., sexual aggression directed toward one's long-term romantic partner) or the relationship processes that might facilitate such behavior. The present study surveyed 143 heterosexual dyads to assess men's psychopathic traits and their relation to self-reports and partner-reports of men's jealousy and partner sexual coercion. Results across informant models showed that men's psychopathy was associated with higher suspicious jealousy and partner sexual coercion. Suspicious jealousy also indirectly linked men's psychopathic traits with engaging in partner sexual coercion. The findings provide novel insights using dyadic data and suggest that both psychopathy and jealousy are important for men's engagement in partner sexual coercion.

The influence of demographics and personality on COVID-19 coping in young adults.

The global COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented effect on human behavior and well-being. Demographic factors and personality traits have been shown to independently influence whether individuals adopt adaptive or maladaptive coping responses. However, to date, researchers have not considered how demographics and personality could interact to influence COVID-19 coping responses. In a sample of 516 North American young adults, we found direct links from two demographic factors (i.e., income and having children) and from multiple personality traits (as captured by the HEXACO model) to adaptive and maladaptive COVID-19 coping responses. We also found that personality indirectly linked a broader range of demographic factors (income, age, gender, having children) with COVID-19 coping responses. We encourage future research on COVID-19 coping responses to consider not just the individual contributions of demographics and personality, but their interdependent influence on whether individuals adopt more or less adaptive COVID-19 pandemic coping responses.