The potential impact of childhood upbringing, traumatic and socioeconomic factors towards ASPD observed in adulthood.

This research project aims to assess whether or not childhood factors such as upbringing, traumatic and socioeconomic aspects impact antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) observed in adulthood in order to determine if ASPD is fully hereditary.
Grade 9

Presentation

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Problem

There is no specific problem this research project aims to solve as it is a correlational study. However, within the results of the study, this research will establish any relation between childhood factors and ASPD observed in adulthood to mitigate the possibilities of such behaviours in a demographic population. The outcomes of this study will help establish how society views people with ASPD in criminology. It can also help decide whether or not ASPD is a factor that should be considered when asserting the severity of a verdict - if it is found that ASPD is an innate disorder that cannot be helped, the sentence should follow suit. Furthermore, the results of the study will aid in developing society's understanding of ASPD and aid in views toward the rehabilitation and reintegration of victims in this condition. The study serves as a way to broaden understanding and help find ways to prevent antisocial personality disorder and the risks associated with it for both parents and individuals who interact with children.

Method

  • Data collection method
    • Secondary data analysis
      • Procedure/Effectiveness: Google Scholar will be used to collect a variety of past studies, sources, articles, and other means of research that relate to the question of this study. The information gathered will connect with exploring childhood factors regarding the extent to which psychopathy is evident in adulthood. Being able to compare the different references together will also allow for an effective way to deduce whether or not psychopathy is a disorder unaffected by childhood circumstances. Collecting secondary data will enable us to find evidence more efficiently and compare it with several credible sources to come to more accurate conclusions.
    • Expert insight (if possible to find information from this source before the deadline)
      • Procedure/Effectiveness: Emails will be sent to a number of high school teachers and university professors who specialize in the area of psychology to ask if they have the time to aid us in this research study. In the case they do, they will be asked to give their insight on the research question and if they believe certain factors can affect psychopathy in adulthood. This method helps in having a credible and knowledgeable source of information to serve as evidence in this research study.
  • Mixed method approach
    • Combination of both qualitative and quantitative research
    • Procedure: When conducting research, information in the form of percentages, graphs, and other statistics will be sought out. It has been chosen to also consider data in the form of surveys, interviews, or expert opinion for this study.
    • How It Will Prove As Effective: The combination of both quantitative and qualitative data provides a basis for a more thorough analysis of the research question. When studying the evidence found, being able to use both types of research also increases the quality of information since it allows this topic to be supported and shown in several different ways.
  • Correlational research design
    • Finding the relation between the independent and dependent variables
      • Procedure: The research process will strive to make connections between this research study's independent and dependent variable, in the form of certain aspects of one's childhood and psychopathy in adulthood respectively. To do so, research will specifically target studying the extent to which psychopathy may be affected by specific factors or if it's a heritable disorder. 
      • How It Will Prove As Effective: Being able to make the connection between the variables will solidify a definitive answer to this study's research question. To deduce how psychopathy becomes present in adulthood, the information found must relate to whether or not there are circumstantial factors affecting this, and if so, how they do it.
  • Main aspects of research
    • Different methods of childhood upbringing
      • Factors To Research: This study observes how the way people raise a child can affect psychotic behaviours in adulthood. It includes the attitudes inflicted, behaviours shown, teaching, and morals taught to children by their parents, other older family members, teachers, or caretakers.
    • Childhood traumas
      • Factors To Research: This study observes how traumatic moments experienced as a child can affect psychotic behaviours in adulthood. The possible trauma includes any emotionally disturbing moments in one's childhood and may appear in the forms of strict parents, divorce, toxic people, the death of a loved one, mental/physical/sexual/emotional abuse or surviving natural disasters.
    • Socioeconomic factors
      • Factors To Research: This study observes how the way social and economic factors a child has can affect psychotic behaviours in adulthood. Social factors can include the community a child grows up in, the people they interact with (e.g. classmates), or the way they're treated in society. Economic factors can include the money a child or their family has and the way they may struggle due to financial crisis. Another factor that will be researched is how a child's relation between the social and economic factors in their life could impact psychotic behaviours - this includes socioeconomic factors such as income, education, employment, community safety, and social support.

Research

The key issues discussed in this research paper, include the extent to which childhood factors such as upbringing, socioeconomic, and traumatic factors affect antisocial personality disorder, and the degree of how impactful genetics are in developing antisocial personality disorders in order to determine if these disorders are inherent through birth, or developed through circumstance. Furthermore ascertaining the scope of each factor, inherent or not. Towards developing anti-social personality disorders. Antisocial personality disorder is a mental disorder marked by an absence of guilt, and shame along with a prevalence of impulsive tendencies, with deficient empathy ASPD frequently leads to social limitations and a decreased quality of life. During the research, anti-social personality disorder was used to include both psychopathic and sociopathic traits. This is a mixed methods approach towards a secondary data analysis study. Completed using Google Scholar, to find accredited scholarly articles.

Upbringing

When writing this part of the article, “upbringing” will pertain to the standards in which a person grew up. Pertaining to social development. Including factors such as anything about how the parents raised the child. And any factors towards the friend the child surrounded themselves with.

According to “Shin-yee Wong 2023, Psychopathology of antisocial personality disorder: from the structural, functional and biochemical perspectives”. Low intelligence, attainment, convicted parent, large family size, disrupted family, and young mothers are all factors that predict anti-social personality disorder. This conclusion was reached after looking at a secondary data analysis. Many of the articles used in this paper, will answer each of these predictions of anti personality disorder to determine their importance.

Maya K. Krischer, Kathrin Sevecke, Gerd Lehmkuhl 2020, Family Factors as Predictors for the Development of Antisocial Behavior and Psychopathy Dimensions” Two factors are seen as influential in the development of anti-social personality disorders. Intrafamilial and extrafamilial, and important factors for antisocial pathways lie in parent-child interactions. Furthermore, parent-induced trauma is seen as a casual or mediating risk factor for aggressive and violent behaviour. 

“Maja Deković a, Inge B. Wissink b, Anne Marie Meijer b 2004 The role of family and peer relations in adolescent antisocial behavior: comparison of four ethnic groups” due to the domination in theories and research about anti-social personality disorder in adolescence, being done with white males. This study addresses that gap in the literature. examining whether the same model of family and peer influence on antisocial behaviour applies to adolescents belonging to different ethnic groups. The sample included 603 adolescents (318 females and 285 males) from four ethnic groups: 68% of adolescents were Dutch, 11% were Moroccan, 13% were Turkish and 8% were Surinamese. The questionnaires assessing antisocial behaviour, quality of parent–adolescent relationship, and involvement with deviant peers were completed by adolescents individually at schools. Results show few ethnic differences in the mean level of the assessed constructs: adolescents from different ethnic groups show similar levels of antisocial behaviour, are to a similar degree satisfied with their relationships with parents, disclose as much information to them, and do not differ in their involvement with deviant peers. However, the associations of parent and peer relations with antisocial behaviour differed across the ethnic groups.

Thomas J. Dishion a, Sarah E. Nelson a, Bernadette Marie Bullock b 2004 Premature adolescent autonomy: parent disengagement and deviant peer process in the amplification of problem behavior” This study uses a sample of 206 Oregon youth study boys. And sets to determine whether or not parents of high-risk adolescents reduce their involvement and guidance when confronted with challenges of problem behaviour and the influence of deviant friendships. family management practices and friendships were observed on videotaped interaction tasks. Latent growth curve models were used to examine longitudinal trends between deviant friendship interactions and family management. Direct observations of the deviant friendship process at age 14 were associated with degradation in family management during adolescence. A comparison of antisocial and well-adjusted boys clarified that parents of antisocial boys (started early and persisted) decreased family management around puberty,

Another study published by the “Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology” by Thomas J. Dishion

Sarah E. Nelson, Charlotte E. Winter & Bernadette Marie Bullock 2004. Looked into the influence of friendship on antisocial behaviour from childhood ( age 9 to 10) to adulthood ( 24 to 25). Using a dynamic systems framework they concluded that “findings suggest that individual risk for maladaptation may be amplified by early adolescent friendship dynamics organized around deviance.” And that conversations of early-onset antisocial boys and their best friends were more deviant and less organized than those of well-adjusted controls.

Another study examined the combined and unique ability of different aspects of familial functioning to predict involvement in antisocial behaviour in a clinical sample of adolescents. Factors that were examined include the family’s global (e.g., family socioeconomic status), distal (dispositional characteristics of parents), contextual (family characteristics), and proximal (parent-child interaction). Results show that proximal factors were tightly related to predicting anti-social disorders and behaviour. The effects of distal and contextual factors have been indirect, and no longer determined to be significantly related to antisocial behaviour.

Furthermore, a study done in 2005 titled “ Maternal Depression and Children's Antisocial Behavior” published in the journal “Nature and Nurture Affect” by Julia Kim-Cohen, Ph.D.; Terrie E. Moffitt, Ph.D.; Alan Taylor, MA, MSc; The study starts by stating that depressed mothers would raise children with alleviated conduct problems, as maternal depression disrupts the caregiving environment. Moreover, it also states that “depressed women are likely to have comorbid antisocial personality traits, depressed women are likely to mate and bear children with antisocial men, and children of depressed mothers inherit a genetic liability for psychopathology”. Using data from an Erisk study, A British cohort of 1116 twin pairs assessed at 5 and 7 years of age, were tested for environmental mediation of the association between maternal depression during the children’s first 5 years of life and children’s ASB at age 7 years, free from familial liability for ASB. The results of the study showed that maternal depression that occurred after and before the twin's birth was associated with child ASB and showed a significant dose-response relationship with child ASB at 7 years of age. Parental history of ASPD symptoms accounted for approximately one-third of the observed association between maternal depression and children’s ASB, but maternal depression continued to significantly predict children’s ASB. And that maternal depression between children aged  5 and 7 years showed a subsequent increase in ASB by age 7 years. The combination of depression and ASPD symptoms in mothers also posed the greatest risk for children’s ASB.

Data

To be completed

Conclusion

To be completed

 

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Acknowledgement

We want to acknowledge the following people:

  • Thank you to our science fair coordinator, Mr. Tackney, for allowing us this experience of participating in the 2024 Calgary Youth Science Fair. This provided us with a learning oppourtunity that enabled us to better ourselves in our research
  • Thank you to Yeasmin Rashid, Mohammad Chowdhury, Naznin Yousuf, and M.D Mosfiq Khan, for allowing us to work together on this project by always providing transportation, support and unforgettable advice
  • Thank you to Huzaifa Binte Kamal, the older sister of one of our researchers, for providing emotional, mental, and practical support to both of us by supplying crucial information on how to complete this research project effectively