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Adolescent affective psychopathic traits: the long-term outcomes of mother–infant attachment across 14 years

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Abstract

Affective psychopathic traits have been associated with increased violence and aggression. The scholarly interest in the pathways leading to affective psychopathic traits in adolescence has been growing. Infant attachment security may be one of the early life factors that contribute to the development of affective psychopathic traits. In this study, we test the infant attachment styles measured with the Strange Situation Procedure as a predictor of adolescent affective psychopathic traits measured in three dimensions: remorselessness, unemotionality, and callousness, among 1149 families in the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD). Propensity scores for the four attachment styles were estimated with iterative tree-based regression models. After accounting for the potential confounding effects of demographic characteristics and child temperament with the inverse probability of treatment weighting, weighted generalized linear models revealed the association between insecure/avoidant attachment style measured one year after childbirth and higher levels of remorselessness, unemotionality, and callousness at 15 years. These findings provide insights into the long-term outcomes for attachment relationships established in early life.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Child and Family Studies, University of Tennessee, TN, Knoxville, USA

    Jia Julia Yan

  2. Utah State University, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA

    Jia Julia Yan

  3. Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA

    Jiageng Chen

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  1. Jia Julia Yan
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Correspondence to Jia Julia Yan.

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Yan, J.J., Chen, J. Adolescent affective psychopathic traits: the long-term outcomes of mother–infant attachment across 14 years. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 32, 1899–1907 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-022-02011-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-022-02011-9

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