Influences on antisocial behaviour in adolescence

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Influences on antisocial behaviour in adolescence

• Barbara Maughan
• MRC SGDP Centre
• Institute of Psychiatry
• Kings College London

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I would there were no age between 10 and 23, for
theres nothing in between but getting wenches
with child, wronging the ancestry, stealing,
fighting

• Shakespeare
• The Winters Tale

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Offenders as a percentage of the
population England Wales 2004
Age 17
population
Males
Females
Age (years)
Social Trends 2006
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Conduct Disorder diagnostic criteria

• Aggression
• bullying
• fighting
• weapon use
• cruel to people, animals
• stealing with confrontation
• forced sex
• Destruction of property
• fire-setting
• other destruction, vandalism

• Deceitfulness / theft
• breaking in (house, car)
• lying
• stealing
• Serious rule violations
• staying out late (before 13)
• frequent truancy (before 13)
• running away overnight

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Rates of CD by age and gender(1999 ONS national
survey, n10,450)
Maughan et al, 2004
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Which types of conduct problems increase?Great
Smoky Mountains Study
Non-aggressive
Aggressive
Rowe et al, 2004
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Time trendsRutter Smith 1995

• Evidence for
• ..substantial increases in psychosocial
  disorders of youth since World War II
• sudden increases, not continuation of earlier
  trends
• juvenile crime, depression, alcohol drug use

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National studies of adolescents

• 1974 National Child Development Study
• n10600

• 1986 1970 British Birth Cohort
• n7800

• 1999 ONS Child Mental Health Survey
• n870

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Adolescent conduct problems high scores by
cohort
Adolescent cohort
Collishaw et al, 2004
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What needs to be explained?

• age trends
• marked rise in ASB in adolescence
• sex differences
• males typically more AS than females
• time trends
• rates of adolescent ASB have risen
• individual differences
• only a minority of individuals involved

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Moffitts developmental taxonomy
Adolescent onset
childhood onset / life course persistent
Age
Moffitt, 1993
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Moffitts developmental taxonomy

• Early-onset, persistent ASB
• individually-based risks
• neuro-cognitive deficits
• undercontrolled temperament
• personality weak constraint
• hyperactivity
• in interaction with
• adverse family / parenting / environment
• Adolescent onset ASB
• individually-based risks less salient
• ? normal rebelliousness
• social factors more salient
• influence of deviant peers
• adolescent maturity gap

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Age at menarche and achievement of psychosocial
maturity
Gluckman Hanson, 2006
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Adolescent onset ASB

• individually-based risks
• genetic, neurocognitive - less salient
• personality profile
• lack of conventionality
• social potency / dominance
• excitement-seeking
• peer influences
• highly salient (NB treatment implications)
• ? puberty and adolescent brain development
• adult outcomes
• less benign than anticipated
• often some persistence in ASB
• other traps / restricted opportunities

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Puberty

• Developmental domains with evidence of
  puberty-specific change
• romantic motivation
• sexual interest
• changes in sleep / arousal regulation
• appetite
• risk for affective disorders in females
• increase in risk-taking, novelty-seeking,
  sensation seeking (reward orientation)

Dahl, 2004
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Adolescent brain development

• steady increase in white matter, less regular
  decreases in grey matter
• frontal and parietal cortices
• areas and systems subserving executive functions
• selective attention
• decision making
• planning
• inhibiting impulses
• ? perturbations in social perspective taking
• ? brain more sensitive to experiential input

Blakemore Choudry, 2006
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Affective and cognitive development in
adolescence
Early adolescence
Middle adolescence
Late adolescence
puberty heightens emotional arousability, sensatio
n seeking, reward orientation
heightened vulnerability to risk taking
problems in regulation of affect and behaviour
maturation of frontal lobes facilitates
regulatory competence
Steinberg 2005
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Risk taking in adolescence and adulthood
Gardner Steinberg, 2005
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Risk taking in adolescence and adulthood
Gardner Steinberg, 2005
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Biosocial models of risk for antisocial behaviour

• Evidence for biosocial interactions in relation
  to
• genetic markers
• psychophysiology
• obstetric factors
• brain imaging
• neuropsychology
• hormones

Raine, 2002
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Biosocial interactions 1pubertal development
and hormones
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Testosterone-behaviour links in boys

• past studies mixed results
• rise in circulating T during puberty
• rise in male antisocial behaviour in adolescence
• But
• physical aggression decreases with age
• is T associated with
• non-aggressive conduct problems?
• social dominance?
• do effects vary by social context
• family relationships?
• peers?

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Age trends in testosterone levelsGreat Smoky
Mountains Study
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Age trends in deviant peer relationships
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Which types of conduct problems increase?Great
Smoky Mountains Study
Non-aggressive
Aggressive
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• Aggressive conduct problems
• no increase with age
• no association with testosterone
• Non-aggressive conduct problems
• increase with age
• association with deviant peers
• independent association with testosterone
• Pro-social leadership
• association with testosterone

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Testosterone, leadership and deviant peers
Testosterone levels ? Low ? Medium ?
High
p.002
p.06
ns
Rowe et al, 2004
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Testosterone, non-aggressive conduct problems and
deviant peers
Testosterone levels ? Low ? Medium ?
High
p.002
ns
ns
Rowe et al, 2004
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CD and Tanner stage girls
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CD, Tanner stage and pubertal timing
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Possible mechanisms

• social
• association with older / more deviant peers
• psychosocial
• developmentally inappropriate demands
• immature coping capacities
• genetic
• pubertal timing heritable
• ? shared genetic influences

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Influences on conduct symptoms vary with timing
of menarche
Burt et al, 2006
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Biosocial interactions 2Gene- environment
interactions (G x E)

• Genetically influenced individual differences
  control sensitivity to an environmental risk
• How to detect them?
• Adoption studies genes and environments
  separated
• Candidate genes

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Maltreatment and MAOA genotypeDunedin
longitudinal cohort

• the environmental risk
• maltreatment before age 11 low, mild, severe
• the gene
• MAOA gene on the X chromosome (Xp11.23-11.4)
• metabolizes neurotransmitters norepinephrine
  (NE), serotonin (5-HT) and dopamine (DA)
• genetic deficiencies in MAOA activity linked with
  aggression in mouse and man
• the behavioural outcomes
• 3 separate measures of antisocial behaviour
• Conduct disorder ages 11-18
• Aggressive personality age 26
• Violent convictions age 26

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Conduct disorder
Child maltreatment interacts with
genotype
MAOA activity
Low MAOA activity High MAOA
activity
conduct disorder
Child Maltreatment
Caspi et al., 2002 (Science)
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Biosocial interactions 3 G x E environments
moderate heritability
Button et al, 2005
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Gene-environment interactionenvironments
moderate heritability
Heritability
Button et al, 2005
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Gene-environment interactionenvironments
moderate heritability
Individual environment
Heritability
Shared environment
Button et al, 2005
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Genetic and environmental influences Variations
by level of family dysfunction
High family dysfunction
No family dysfunction
Shared environment 0
Genes 0
Shared environment 25
Individual environment 20
Genes 80
Individual environment 75
Button et al, 2005
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What promotes desistance from offending?

• turning points in development
• attachment to adult social bonds
• marriage
• employment

Sampson Laub, 1993
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What promotes desistance from offending?

• family
• low physical punishment in adolescence
• peers
• low peer substance use
• good relationships with peers
• attitudes / cognitions
• believes likely to be caught
• job skills
• social bonds
• in employment / education

Stouthamer-Loeber et al, 2005
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Time trends what might contribute?

• Changing economic social conditions
• (largely improved)
• Changes in relative inequalities
• Changing family patterns
• parental divorce, single parenthood
• Changes in broader social influences
• social attitudes / expectations
• meaning of adolescence
• moral beliefs
• exposure to media violence, targeted
  advertising, etc

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Domains of risk for adolescent antisocial
behaviour

• genetic
• including G-E interactions and correlations
• biological
• puberty and adolescent brain development
• psychological
• processing of experiences
• social cognitions
• social
• social attitudes and values
• poverty and social disadvantage
• neighbourhood and school
• family and parenting
• peers
• interactions among all of the above

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Influences on antisocial behaviour in adolescence

• Barbara Maughan
• MRC SGDP Centre
• Institute of Psychiatry
• Kings College London

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