Impulsive and compulsive reading comprehension in the prison population.

BACKGROUND: Developmental dyslexia is characterized by reading and writing deficits that persist into adulthood. Dyslexia is strongly associated with academic underachievement, as well as impulsive, compulsive, and criminal behaviors. The aims of this study were to investigate impulsive or compulsive reading comprehension, analyzing the differences in reading errors between two distinct groups -one with Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) and another with Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) and examine their correlation with criminal behavior within a prison population. METHODS: We gathered data from 194 participants: 81 with ASPD and 113 with OCPD from a prison center. Participants took part in interviews to gather data on demographic, criminal, and behavioral data. Additionally, the participants underwent various assessments, including the International Examination for Personality Disorders; Symptom Inventory, and Battery for the Assessment of Reading Processes in Secondary and High School - Revised. RESULTS: Our analysis revealed differences in reading skills between the ASPD and OCPD groups. Specifically, the OCPD group showed poorer performance on lexical selection, semantic categorization, grammar structures, grammatical judgements, and expository comprehension when compared with the ASPD group. Conversely, the OCPD group obtained higher scores on narrative comprehension relative to the ASPD group. CONCLUSIONS: The OCPD group showed slow lexical-phonological coding and phonological activation.

Writing Abilities in Compulsive Prisoners.

Research has found links between academic failure and criminal offending and suggest that many incarcerated young people have experienced significant behavioral and learning problems in school, which could result in criminal outcomes and poor academic performance. The objective of this study was to analyse writing disorders in impulsive and compulsive prisoners. The sample was composed of 194 male prisoners, of which 81 had been diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder and 113 with Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder. Male participants were recruited at the Granada Prison Center. They completed the Demographic, Crime, and Institutional Behavior Interview; the International Personality Disorder Examination (IPDE); The Symptom Checklist (SCL-90-R) and Assessment Battery of Writing Processes (PROESC in its Spanish acronym). We found that prisoners with writing disorders generally have difficulties in the skills necessary to write properly due to impulsive and compulsive behavior.