Personality patterns predict the risk of antisocial behavior in Spanish-speaking adolescents
Authors:
Miguel Ángel Alcázar-Córcoles, Antonio Verdejo-García, José Carlos Bouso-Sáiz, Javier Revuelta-Menéndez, and Ezequiel Ramírez-Lira.
Journal:
Actas Españolas de Psiquiatría
Year:
2017
About the study
The research’s aims were to assess personality dimensions that relate to the uninhibited pattern of behavior, the subsequent examination of how those dimensions are grouped into factors and the possibility that such factors allow predicting the antisocial behavior of adolescents.
The hypothesis was whether the uninhibited pattern of behavior is related to the commission of antisocial behavior. The results show the relationship between personality and delinquency of adolescents, which can be interpreted according to the existence of a continuum, from normal behavior to criminal till psychopathic.
These results support the uninhibited behavior pattern approach as a useful way of articulating personality dimensions to investigate their association with antisocial behavior.
Abstract
Introduction: There is a renewed interest in incorporating personality variables in criminology theories in order to build models able to integrate personality variables and biological factors with psychosocial and sociocultural factors. The aim of this article is the assessment of personality dimensions that contribute to the prediction of antisocial behavior in adolescents.
Methods: For this purpose, a sample of adolescents from El Salvador, Mexico, and Spain was obtained. The sample consisted of 1035 participants with a mean age of 16.2. There were 450 adolescents from a forensic population (those who committed a crime) and 585 adolescents from the normal population (no crime committed). All of participants answered personality tests about neuroticism, extraversion, psychoticism, sensation seeking, impulsivity, and violence risk.
Results: Principal component analysis of the data identified two independent factors: (i) the disinhibited behavior pattern (PDC), formed by the dimensions of neuroticism, psychoticism, impulsivity and risk of violence; and (ii) the extrovert behavior pattern (PEC), formed by the dimensions of sensation risk and extraversion. Both patterns significantly contributed to the prediction of adolescent antisocial behavior in a logistic regression model which properly classifies a global percentage of 81.9%, 86.8% for non-offense and 72.5% for offense behavior.
Conclusions: The classification power of regression equations allows making very satisfactory predictions about adolescent offense commission. Educational level has been classified as a protective factor, while age and gender (male) have been classified as risk factors.
Photo by shawn henry on Unsplash.
Categories:
Studies & papers
, Others
Tags:
antisocial behavior
, evaluation
, juvenile offenders
, impulsivity
, disinhibition
, extroversion
, scientific research
, study
, personality