Childhood predictors differentiate life-course persistent and adolescence-limited antisocial pathways among males and females

“It is not clear that this group is analogous to the adolescent-limited course identified by Moffitt and Caspi (2001); the adolescent-limited group, rather, has a “spike” in such behaviors that emerges in adolescence, whereas the Increasing-High group has relatively steady increases in behavioral…”

“Some aggressive behaviors in childhood predict aggression in later life; others are temporary and disappear at later ages, such as temper tantrums in toddlers [61] and adolescencelimited antisocial behavior [62].”

“However, if one defines ‘needs’ as dynamic risk factors, then these have been documented in many studies as elevating one’s chances of antisocial behavior (Farrington & West, 1993; Lipsey & Derzon, 1998; Moffitt & Caspi, 2001).”

“If the adolescent-onset group does differ from children without conduct problems, it seems primarily in showing more affiliation with delinquent peers and higher scores on measures of rebelliousness and authority conflict (Moffitt & Caspi, 2001; Moffitt, Caspi, Dickson, Silva, & Stanton, 1996).”

“…psychiatry, and criminology (Barker, Oliver, & Maughan, 2010; DeLisi & Piquero, 2011; DiLalla & Gottesman, 1989; Eme, 2009; Moffitt, 1993; Moffitt & Caspi, 2001; Patterson, Forgatch, Yoerger, & Stoolmiller, 1998; Quay, Routh, & Shapiro, 1987), there are important distinctions made…”

“We attribute this difference first to the fact that the present samples were all adult offenders, essentially excluding the majority of all offenders—those whose antisociality is age limited, that is, limited to adolescence (Moffitt & Caspi, 2001).”

“Two types of problem behavior trajectories are often found: a “life-course persistent” trajectory, ascribed to youth who chronically display disruptive behavior beginning in early childhood (Moffitt 1993), and a “increasing problems” trajectory, attributed to youth who display a pattern of disruptive behavior that inc…”

“While prospective data are optimal to adjudicate between these possibilities, to date such evidence exists only for disruptivebehavior problems, indicating that low intelligence prospectively predicts life-course–persistent antisocial behavior, particularly for males.(24,34) If low intelligenceassociatedwithotherpsych…”

“…antisocial behavior, researchers have focused on pre-existing characteristics within the child, such as learned behavioral or personal dispositions (Moffitt & Caspi, 2001), and the influence of deviant friends or rejection by normative peers as the driving forces behind the emergence and…”

“Understanding the aetiology of developmental change in psychopathology, in adolescence in particular, may provide clinically-relevant insights as to how risk for psychiatric disorders in young adulthood and beyond is mediated (Gregory et al., 2007; Moffitt & Caspi, 2001; Rutter et al., 2006).”

“Furthermore, because parenting practices between the ages of 2 and 3 have been repeatedly related to early-starting pathways of antisocial behavior (Aguilar et al., 2000; Moffitt & Caspi, 2001; Shaw & Gross, 2008), it follows that similar associations could be evident for adolescent substance use.”

“These include forms of chronic psychosis (Marenco and Weinberger 2000), disorders of impulse control (Moffitt and Caspi 2001), and posttraumatic reactions (Heim and Nemeroff 2001).”

“Further, there is extant work on sex differences in the risk threshold for adolescent delinquency that has compared boys and girls who vary in the extent to which they exhibit delinquent versus nondelinquent trajectories (e.g., Moffitt and Caspi 2001; Wong et al. 2013).”

“Externalizing problems have been found to show considerable stability in childhood [16, 21–23].”

“Theoretical models suggest recursive associations between trauma and externalizing behaviors, in which exposure to trauma initiates a trajectory of deviance and criminality that in turn may increase the likelihood of exposure to more trauma.(12,13,21) Disentangling the direction of association between PTEs and EDs is…”

“The association between pubertal maturation and antisocial behavior is supported by a number of studies (Caspi et al., 1993; Ge, 1996; Moffitt & Caspi, 2001; Nichols et al., 2006), with early maturing girls showing higher levels of antisocial behavior.”

“These two phenotypes differ in etiological predictors, such that childhood-onset delinquents have backgrounds of inadequate parenting, neurocognitive problems, and early behavior problems, whereas adolescent-onset delinquents do not ( Moffitt & Caspi, 2001 ).”

“Finally, several researchers have noted that male adolescents display more aggressive and acting-out behaviors than females [ 21 ,22].”

“PALS contains interventions primarily focusing on risk factors related to overt problem behaviour or conduct disorder (Moffitt & Caspi, 2001; Loeber, 1990), even though we expected that a more safe and orderly learning environment would have some positive effects on internalising problem behaviour…”

“In analogy with adult personality disorders having childhood precedents, these disorders have been found to carry an increased risk of adjustment problems and aggression in adulthood [2,17-20].”

“Also in the Dunedin Study, other variables than parenting practices (such as neurocognitive deficits, undercontrolled temperament, and hyperactivity) were found to have a stronger predictive effect (Moffitt & Caspi, 2001).”

“For example, one study validated the two-path model for boys and girls, suggesting that although childhood onset was quite rare among girls, the rate of adolescent-onset delinquency was similar across genders (Moffitt & Caspi, 2001).”

“…critically, there is some evidence that persistently troubled youth can be discriminated on measures of intraindividual functioning and contextual adversity in childhood from those who begin to evince antisocial behavior in adolescence (e.g., Moffitt & Caspi, 2001; but see Aguilar et al., 2000).”

“…evidence indicating that a small proportion of girls do follow the childhood-onset trajectory of antisocial behaviors [e.g., Lahey et al., 2006; Moffitt and Caspi, 2001; Odgers et al., 2008; Pepler et al., 2008; Schaeffer et al., 2006; van Lier et al., 2007], although oftentimes they are…”

“Longitudinal research on males from birth to 26 years suggests 2 main groups of deviant youth [13-16].”

“Consultation with others 23 (1) 12 (1) 11 ( 9 ) .001 Referral to others 69 (3) 50 (3) 19 (15) .001”

“Odgers et al. (2007) use longitudinal data from the Dunedin study to find that early interpersonal deficits predicted poor health in adulthood.”

“…deficit of the observed magnitude would impair self-regulation, verbal reasoning and executive functioning, and thus would contribute to impulsive responding, inattention as well as poor planning, thus increasing the risk for psychopathology (Moffitt & Caspi, 2001; Pennington & Ozonoff, 1996).”

“Briefly, a face validity approach was used to combine 18 items reflecting processes associated with long-term stress into a single index, a procedure previously used by others (Moffitt & Caspi, 2001; Raine et al., 2005; Rutter, 1978).”

“Thus, the enduring effects of hazardous preschool experiences may increase higher levels of nondepressive behavioral symptoms in later adolescence in boys compared to girls (Moffitt & Caspi, 2001).”

“This is consistent with other studies of the prevalence of conduct problems in children (Burns & Patterson, 1991, 2000; Eyberg & Ross, 1978; Moffitt & Caspi, 2001; Robinson et al. , 1980; Romano, Tremblay, Vitaro, Zoccolillo & Pagani, 2001).”

“Conduct problems in early childhood is the strongest predictor of conduct disorders in later life (Moffitt and Caspi 2001).”

“…conclusions about what we know regarding early childhood indicators of serious antisocial behavior because of the relative dearth of prospective studies that have been conducted spanning from early childhood to adolescence (e.g., Aguilar et al., 2000; Moffitt & Caspi, 2001; Olds et al., 1998a).”

“Boys are more likely, at an early age, to be exposed to risk factors for ODD/CD such as neurodevelopmental problems and family adversity (Lahey et al. 2006; Moffitt and Caspi 2001).”

“Background—Approximately one-third of children who meet criteria for conduct problems (CP) are also characterized by elevated callous-unemotional (CU) traits.”

“As noted previously, these data are not able to disentangle causal mechanisms, but it is likely that the reinforcing properties of punishment and children’s behavioral skills deficitsinteracted to create an escalating cycle of aberrant school behavior, consistent with the “early starter” literature that identifies a s…”

“Moreover, conduct disorder as a diagnostic classification has little utility for identifying the small group of youth involved in a grossly disproportionate amount of crime during adolescence and adulthood (Loeber & Farrington, 2000; Moffit & Caspi, 2001).”

“For aggressive and delinquent behavior, boys generally show higher levels than girls [e.g., Moffitt and Caspi, 2001; Card et al., 2008].”

“…taxonomic theory of antisocial behavior, for example, neuropsychological functioning deficits characterize life-course-persistent antisocial youths (Moffitt & Caspi, 2001), and an extensive literature now implicates prefrontal cortex dysfunction, usually resulting in executive dysfunction…”

“In particular, a number of predictors of poor outcome in longitudinal studies (Rutter et al., 1998; Moffitt and Caspi, 2001) did not appear to be barriers to successful treatment.”

“The incident group of children with externalizing psychopathology may represent a later adolescent-onset occurrence of conduct problems (Moffitt & Caspi, 2001; Moffitt, Caspi, Dickson, Silva, & Stanton, 1996) or perhaps a milder form of hyperactivity–inattention manifesting as academic demands…”

“…their outcomes across a variety of domains, including externalizing and internalizing behavior problems (Ackerman et al., 1999; Loeber et al., 2001; Moffitt & Caspi, 2001), cognitive development (Hooper, Burchinal, Roberts, Zeisel, & Neebe, 1998; Sameroff et al., 1987; Sameroff, Siefer, Baldwin, &…”

“The vast majority of antisocial girls belong to the second group (adolescence-limited: 18% vs. life-course-persistent: 1%; Moffitt and Caspi 2001 ).”

“1994); early onset conduct disorder predicting later antisocial personality disorder (Moffitt and Caspi 2001); and finally, kindergarten impulsivity predicting pre-adolescent gambling involvement and infant televiewing predicting more sophisticated screen media consumption in pre-adolescence (Pagani et al.”

“This is analogous to Moffitt’s suggestion that adolescence-limited antisocial behavior emerges alongside puberty and, providing the adolescent does not encounter a “snare,” should be relatively temporary, whereas childhood onset of antisocial behavior persists throughout life (31).”

“Moffitt’s theoretical ideas received strong empirical support (e.g., DeLisi, 2001c; Kratzer & Hodgins, 1999; Mazerolle, Brame, Paternoster, Piquero, & Dean, 2000; McCabe, Hough, Wood, & Yeh, 2001; Moffitt & Caspi, 2001; Moffitt, Lynam, & Silva, 1994; Piquero, 2001; Tibbetts & Piquero, 1999).”

“Other factors include social factors like dysfunctional family influences or childhood adversity (Moffitt & Caspi, 2001).”

“Group differences in grade and gender were also examined, given differences found across internalizing and externalizing symptoms based on these individual factors [39, 40].”

“Empirically, the early onset life-course persistent offender has been differentially predicted by individual-level, biosocial factors, including neurological abnormalities, autonomic hypoactivity (e.g., low resting heart rate), low cognitive ability, low birth weight, maternal cigarette use, perinatal complications, a…”

“Turning to early discriminators of trajectories, results confirm past research suggesting the importance of children’s gender, IC, maternal depression, harsh parenting, and parental education in discriminating early-starting and persistent CP (Aguilar et al., 2000; Moffitt & Caspi, 2001).”

“…presentation and patterns of Axis I comorbidity are broadly consistent with previously published findings from both epidemiologic (Moffitt, 1993; Moffitt and Caspi, 2001; Moffitt et al., 2002; Sung et al., 2004) and clinic-referred samples of children and adolescents (Lahey et al., 1998, 1999;…”

“Moffitt and Caspi (2001) also provided evidence that the theory applies to both males and females.”

“Life-course-persistent antisocial behavior is also associated with a different set of childhood variables (Moffitt, 1990; Moffitt et al. 1996; Moffitt & Caspi, 2001), and antisocial behavior co-morbid with ADHD shows a different profile of family risk factors (Lahey et al. 1988; Moffitt, 1990;…”

“Exposure to peer deviance has been suggested as the main risk factor for more minor property offending (Moffitt, 1993; Moffitt & Caspi, 2001).”

“If untreated, problems are likely to persist in later life and can lead to serious limitations in daily functioning [2, 5 ].”

“One of the most important theoretical perspectives has been the developmental taxonomy, proffered by Moffitt and colleagues (Moffitt, 1993, Moffitt & Caspi, 2001; Moffitt, Caspi, Dickson, Silva, & Stanton, 1996; Moffitt, Caspi, Harrington, & Milne, 2002).”

“…life onset of antisocial behavior increases the risk for persistent disorder, other mental health problems, and delinquency (Moffitt et al., 2008; Moffitt and Caspi, 2001), researchers have sought to identify neural correlates of antisocial behavior that might clarify etiological mechanisms, or…”

“This discrepancy fits with the assumption that the magnitude of sex differences decreases in puberty (Moffitt and Caspi 2001).”