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.

The Brief Adolescent Depression Screen: A Brief Screening Tool for Depression and Suicidal Behavior in Inpatient Adolescents.

Background: In clinical settings, there is significant need for brief, easily-administered assessment tools for adolescent depression that can be used by mental health clinicians from a variety of training backgrounds. Existing depression screening tools do not assess for duration and consistency of symptoms, two key indicators of pathological depression. Objective: The Brief Adolescent Depression Screen (BADS) was developed to screen for major and persistent depressive disorders in adolescents in order to meet the assessment needs in an inpatient setting, and the validity of this tool was tested. Method: The current study used a sample of 396 inpatient adolescents to assess the screening utility of the BADS for detecting whether the adolescent meets criteria for a depressive diagnosis according to a well-validated semi-structured interview, as well as detecting a positive history of suicidal behavior. Further, the screening utility of this measure was compared to the utility of an established depression rating scale. Results: Analyses first determined the duration of depressive symptoms on the BADS that optimally screened for the presence of Major Depressive Disorder and Persistent Depressive Disorder. Findings indicated that, using these optimal screening cut-offs, the BADS showed a strong screening utility, resulting in a sensitivity and specificity for identifying full depressive diagnoses and a positive history of suicidal behavior with similar or greater accuracy than an established rating scale. Conclusions: These findings provide initial evidence to suggest that the BADS may be a helpful screening tool for adolescent depressive disorders in inpatient settings.

Oppositional defiant disorder.

Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) is a disruptive behaviour disorder involving an ongoing pattern of angry/irritable mood, argumentative/defiant behaviour and vindictiveness. Onset is typically before 8 years of age, although ODD can be diagnosed in both children and adults. This disorder is associated with substantial social and economic burden, and childhood ODD is one of the most common precursors of other mental health problems that can arise across the lifespan. The population prevalence of ODD is ~3 to 5%. A higher prevalence in males than females has been reported, particularly before adolescence. No single risk factor accounts for ODD. The development of this disorder seems to arise from the interaction of genetic and environmental factors, and mechanisms embedded in social relationships are understood to contribute to its maintenance. The treatment of ODD is often successful, and relatively brief parenting interventions produce large sized treatment effects in early childhood. Accordingly, ODD represents an important focus for research, practice and policy concerning early intervention and prevention in mental health.

A commentary on Perlstein et al. (2023): the past and future of treating youth with limited prosocial emotions.

Perlstein, Fair, Hong, and Waller (Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2023) meta-analysis provides a critically important summary of the research on the treatment of children and adolescents with elevated callous-unemotional (CU) traits, 10 years after they were added to diagnostic criteria in the "with Limited Prosocial Emotions" specifier for conduct disorder. Their meta-analysis provides clear and convincing evidence that many treatments that reduce conduct problems in youth are also effective for children with elevated CU traits. However, their findings also indicate that CU traits are a severity indicator, in that youth high on these traits start treatment with more severe behavior problems and, despite improving with treatment, often leave treatment with more severe behavior problems. Such findings provide a clear focus for future research to adapt existing treatments to be more effective for youth with elevated CU traits. Further, the findings from the meta-analysis suggested that while treatments overall were not effective in reducing callous-unemotional traits, high-quality parenting interventions show promise for improving this outcome.

The Social Correlates to Callous-Unemotional Traits in a Sample of High School Students.

Callous-Unemotional (CU) traits are strongly related to early-onset and severe levels of conduct problems. However, much less research has focused on their association with potential problems in adolescents' social relationships. Further, it is important to determine if CU traits explain variance in important social variables, independent of conduct problems or general personality dimensions related to sociability, like agreeableness. In the current study, we examined the association of CU traits with a range of social variables in a community sample of Italian adolescents (N = 563; 460 girls; mean age = 15.80, SD = 1.50). Measures for the social variables included assessment of peer rejection, adolescents' prosocial behaviors, satisfaction in peer relationships, and feelings of connection with school and classmates. We also obtained self-report ratings of CU traits, conduct problems (CP) and agreeableness. Analyses showed that CU traits were significantly associated with all the social variables. After controlling for CP and agreeableness, CU traits were still positively associated with ratings of peer rejection and negatively associated with prosocial behavior and satisfaction in relationships with peers. However, the negative associations with feelings of connection to school and peers were no longer significant. These findings provide further support for the clinical usefulness of CU traits and further evidence for potential targets of intervention, particularly focused on the adolescent's relational skills.

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).

Towards Preventative Psychiatry: Concurrent and Longitudinal Predictors of Postnatal Maternal-Infant Bonding.

Maternal-infant bonding is important for children's positive development. Poor maternal-infant bonding is a risk factor for negative mother and infant outcomes. Although researchers have examined individual predictors of maternal-infant bonding, studies typically do not examine several concurrent and longitudinal predictors within the same model. This study aimed to evaluate the unique and combined predictive power of cross-sectional and longitudinal predictors of maternal-infant bonding. Participants were 372 pregnant women recruited from an Australian hospital. Data were collected from mothers at antenatal appointments (T0), following their child's birth (T1), and at a laboratory assessment when their child was 5-11-months-old (T2). Poorer bonding at T2 was predicted at T0 by younger maternal age, higher education, and higher antenatal depressive symptoms. Poorer bonding at T2 was predicted at T1 by younger maternal age, higher education, and higher postnatal depressive symptoms. Poorer bonding at T2 was predicted at T2 by younger maternal age, higher education, higher postnatal depression symptoms, higher concurrent perceived social support, and more difficult infant temperament, when controlling for child age at T2. To promote positive maternal-infant bonding, global and targeted interventions in the perinatal period may benefit from targeting maternal psychopathology, perceived lack of social support, and coping with difficult infant temperament.

Sympathetic nervous system functioning during the face-to-face still-face paradigm in the first year of life.

Contemporary theories of early development and emerging child psychopathology all posit a major, if not central role for physiological responsiveness. To understand infants' potential risk for emergent psychopathology, consideration is needed to both autonomic reactivity and environmental contexts (e.g., parent-child interactions). The current study maps infants' arousal during the face-to-face still-face paradigm using skin conductance (n = 255 ethnically-diverse mother-infant dyads; 52.5% girls, mean infant age = 7.4 months; SD = 0.9 months). A novel statistical approach was designed to model the potential build-up of nonlinear counter electromotive force over the course of the task. Results showed a significant increase in infants' skin conductance between the Baseline Free-play and the Still-Face phase, and a significant decrease in skin conductance during the Reunion Play when compared to the Still-Face phase. Skin conductance during the Reunion Play phase remained significantly higher than during the Baseline Play phase; indicating that infants had not fully recovered from the mild social stressor. These results further our understanding of infant arousal during dyadic interactions, and the role of caregivers in the development of emotion regulation during infancy.

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.

A Comparison of Parent, Teacher, and Youth Ratings on the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits.

The current study compared the validity of self-, parent-, and teacher-report versions of the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU), a widely used measure of callous-unemotional (CU) traits, at several different ages. Participants (N = 236, 60.6% girls) were children in Grades 3, 6, and 8 (Mage = 11.55, SD = 2.23) from a public school system in the southern United States. We tested the association of all three ICU versions with several validators: parent- and teacher-reported conduct problems, peer nominations of characteristics associated with CU traits, and sociometric peer nominations of social preference. Results revealed an interaction between the ICU version and grade in the overall level of CU traits reported, with teacher-report leading to the highest ratings in sixth grade and being higher than parent-report in third grade. Furthermore, the validity of the different versions of the ICU varied somewhat across grades. Specifically, findings support the validity of both teacher- and self-report in third grade, but self-report was the only version to show strong validity in the eighth grade.

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.

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.

The Mood Disorder Assessment Schedule: Initial validation of a new measure for early identification of bipolar spectrum disorders in inpatient adolescents.

Due to the significant impairment associated with subthreshold bipolar symptomatology and the harmful effects of delayed diagnosis, there is a great need for diagnostic tools that can facilitate early identification of bipolar spectrum disorders. The Mood Disorder Assessment Schedule (MDAS) is a newly developed measure that focuses on autonomous changes in mood and energy, a key indicator of bipolar spectrum problems which is not included in current diagnostic tools for bipolar disorders. The current study tested the ability of the MDAS to identify individuals at risk for bipolar spectrum disorders. In a cross-sectional sample of 396 inpatient adolescents, the MDAS identified a group of individuals with several bipolar spectrum disorder (BSD) indicators, including greater manic and depressive symptoms, affective lability, suicidal behavior, adverse reactions to antidepressants, and a family history of bipolar disorder and suicidal behavior. When compared to a standard diagnostic interview for bipolar disorders (i.e., Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia [KSADS]), the MDAS yielded stronger clinical utility in its ability to identify individuals with BSD indicators. Therefore, the MDAS appears to be a promising diagnostic tool for identifying adolescents at risk for BSDs and may help facilitate earlier diagnosis and prevent harmful effects of improper treatment.

Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU) Factor Structure and Measurement Invariance in an Adolescent Multinational Sample.

OBJECTIVE: The Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU) is a widely used, comprehensive measure of callous-unemotional (CU) traits. While the ICU total score is used frequently in research, the scale's factor structure remains highly debated. Inconsistencies in past factor structure research appear to be largely due to the use of small non-representative samples and failure to control for method variance (i.e., item wording direction). METHOD: The current study used a multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) approach that considers both trait and method variance to test the factor structure of a 22-item version of the self-report ICU in a multinational community sample of 4,683 adolescents (ages 11-17). RESULTS: Results showed that a hierarchical four-factor model (i.e., one overarching CU factor, four latent trait factors) that controlled for method variance (i.e., by allowing residuals from positively worded items to covary) provided the best fit (χ2 = 2797.307, df = 160, RMSEA=.059, CFI=.922, TLI=.888, SRMR=.045). CONCLUSIONS: After controlling for method variance, the best-fitting factor structure is consistent with how the ICU was developed and corresponds to the four symptoms of Limited Prosocial Emotions (LPE) specifier in the DSM-5 criteria for Conduct Disorder (CD). In addition, measurement invariance of this factor structure across age (i.e., younger versus older adolescents) and sex was supported. As a result, mean differences in ICU total score across age and sex can be interpreted as reflecting true variations in these traits. Further, we documented that boys generally scored higher than girls on the ICU, and this sex difference was larger in later adolescence.