Gender Differences in Delinquent Behavior among Korean Adolescents

The present study examined gender differences in the rate, type, and relevant variables underlying delinquent behavior among South Korean adolescents. Although female delinquency is increasing and becoming more violent in South Korea, the rate of delinquent behavior was found to be much lower among female than among male adolescents and female adolescents were much less involved in antisocial, aggressive, and psychopathic delinquent behavior compared to male adolescents. Moreover, compared to female delinquent adolescents, male delinquent adolescents were found to have greater tendencies towards antisocial personality, sociability, being sexually abused, and alcohol and drug use. In contrast, female delinquent adolescents had a greater tendency toward depression than male delinquent adolescents. No gender differences were found in the association between family dynamics and delinquent behaviors. Age and antisocial personality had the most significant total effects on male delinquent behavior. In contrast, alcohol and drug abuse was the strongest contributing factors in female delinquent behavior, although the level of alcohol and drug abuse was much higher among male adolescents than among female adolescents.     

Gender Differences in the Relationship Between Depression,Antisocial Behavior,Alcohol Use,and Gambling during Emerging Adulthood

International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction - Emerging adults show higher prevalence of harmful risk behaviors, such as alcohol use and gambling, compared to other age groups. In existing...     

Gender Differences in Suicidal Behavior in Korea

Objective

To examine gender differences in the characteristics of suicidal behavior in South Korea.

Methods

Between August 2003 and December 2006, 344 suicide attempters (116 men, 228 women) participated in this study. The attempters were interviewed using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I), and the lethality of the attempt was measured using the Lethality Suicide Attempt Rating Scale-II (LSARS-II) and Risk-Rescue Rating Scale (RRRS).

Results

Significantly more women than men were admitted to emergency rooms due to attempted suicide during the study period. The male attempters were older and had a higher rate of employment than the females. Depression was the most common psychiatric disorder in both genders. The lesion/toxicity scores of the RRRS indicated that the male suicide attempters used higher doses or more toxic agents than the female attempters. The most common methods of suicide were ingestion and cutting in both sexes. Although there were significant gender differences in the RRRS risk score and RRRS total scores, there was no gender difference in the LSARS-II scores, which suggests that patients of both sexes share a similar ambivalence regarding suicide completion or death.

Conclusion

Our study should be understood within the context of the specific cultural background of South Korea. We found that males and females use similar methods when attempting suicide and share a similar ambivalence regarding the outcome of the attempt; however, there was a difference in severity of the attempt between the two groups. Our findings may aid in the identification of more effective methods of intervention to prevent suicide.     

Neuroimaging of Psychopathy and Antisocial Behavior: A Targeted Review

The goal of this article is to provide a selective and targeted review of the neuroimaging literature on psychopathic tendencies and antisocial behavior and to explore the extent to which this literature supports recent cognitive neuroscientific models of psychopathy and antisocial behavior. The literature reveals that individuals who present with an increased risk for reactive, but not instrumental, aggression show increased amygdala responses to emotionally evocative stimuli. This is consistent with suggestions that such individuals are primed to respond strongly to an inappropriate extent to threatening or frustrating events. In contrast, individuals with psychopathic tendencies show decreased amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex responses to emotionally provocative stimuli or during emotional learning paradigms. This is consistent with suggestions that such individuals face difficulties with basic forms of emotional learning and decision making.     

Antisocial Behavior,Psychopathology and Functional Impairment: Association with Sex and Age in Clinical Children and Adolescents

This study examined the prevalence, degree of association and differential effect, by sex and age, of conduct disorder symptoms on psychopathology and functioning. Participants included 680 Spanish children and adolescents between 8 and 17 years and their parents, attending to psychiatric outpatient consultation. Data were obtained through structured diagnostic interviews, and other measures of psychopathological outcomes and functional impairment. In general, the prevalence of antisocial behavior did not differ significantly by sex or age. Results indicated a higher frequency for 13–17 year olds, and a greater number of symptoms in boys. Moreover, some symptoms of conduct disorder showed developmental variations. Sex and age differentially affected the expression of some conduct disorder symptoms and their associations with functional impairment and severity of psychopathology. Knowing the different expression of each symptom could help to identify these problems in clinical children and adolescents, contributing to an early detection of population at the highest risk of serious psychopathology and worse prognosis.     

Gender Differences When Parenting Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Multilevel Modeling Approach

Parenting a child with autism may differentially affect mothers and fathers. Existing studies of mother–father differences often ignore the interdependence of data within families. We investigated gender differences within-families using multilevel linear modeling. Mothers and fathers of children with autism (161 couples) reported on their own well-being, and their child’s functioning. Mothers reported higher levels of distress compared with fathers, and child behavior problems predicted psychological distress for both mothers and fathers. We found little evidence of child functioning variables affecting mothers and fathers differently. Gender differences in the impact of child autism on parents appear to be robust. More family systems research is required to fully understand these gender differences and the implications for family support.     

缺血性卒中危险因素及4种卒中风险评分中的性别差异

卒中的发生风险存在性别差异,可能与某些生理因素及男女对同一危险因素体现的卒中 易感性不同有关。常用卒中风险评分多基于危险因素制定,但大多未纳入性别因素,可能造成其预测 效度出现性别偏倚。本文就缺血性卒中的危险因素及4种典型卒中风险评分[CHADS2（Congestive heart failure,Hypertension,Age≥75,Diabetes,Stroke）、CHA2DS2-VASc（Congestive heart failure,Hypertension, Age≥75,Diabetes,Stroke,Vascular disease,Age 65～74,Sex category）、艾森卒中风险（Essen Stroke Risk Score,ESRS）评分、ABCD2（Age,Blood pressure,Clinical features,Duration,Diabetes）评分]预测效 度的性别差异予以综述。     

An Etiological Approach to Sexual Offender Assessment: CAse Formulation Incorporating Risk Assessment (CAFIRA)

Purpose of Review

Case formulations (CF) have been the cornerstone of effective practice in clinical psychology since the 1950s and now form one of the core competencies in clinical and forensic assessment. The use of CFs within forensic settings is becoming more relevant when working with offenders who have experienced significant trauma, suffered from personality disorder, and have displayed sexually abusive behavior. Furthermore, most North American and European jurisdictions insist that expert witnesses adopt an idiosyncratic approach to risk assessment and consider the characteristics of the individual as part of a wider formulation of the problem behavior. This article focuses specifically on CF incorporating risk assessment procedures of sexual offenders.

Recent Findings

While empirical support for the use of risk analysis and formulation in managing offending behavior generally, and sexual offending behavior in particular, is limited, there is mounting evidence to suggest that CF can improve understanding of an individual’s problem sexual behaviors. We argue that by integrating risk formulations into the CF provides a conceptually robust link between the etiologically development of the problem sexual behavior and effective assessment and risk management of sexual offenders. As forensic treatment programs increasingly moved toward strength-based approaches, in keeping with the Risk-Need-Responsivity principles Andrews and Bonta (2004), and the Good Lives Model Ward and Stewart (Prof Psychol Res Pract 34:353–60, 2003) of offender rehabilitation, the use of CFs in the assessment, treatment, and management of sexual offenders is indispensable.

Summary

We present an etiological framework for understanding risk in an individual sexual offender by integrating a case formulation model to include the use of (static, stable, and acute) actuarial and clinical risk assessment measures as well as protective risk factors, referred to as the CAse Formulation Incorporating Risk Assessment (CAFIRA) model.

     

Anticipating Problem Drinking Risk From Preschoolers' Antisocial Behavior: Evidence for a Common Delinquency-Related Diathesis Model

ObjectiveEarly first drinking (EFD) experiences predict later alcohol problems. However, the longitudinal pathway from early childhood leading to EFD has not been well delineated. Based on documented links between drinking behaviors and chronic antisocial behaviors, this article tests a common diathesis model in which precursive patterns of aggression and delinquent behavior—from preschool onward—anticipate EFD.MethodParticipants were 220 male children and their parents in a high risk for substance use disorder prospective study. Early first drinking was defined as having had a first drink by 12 to 14 years of age. Stacked structural equation models and configural frequency analyses were used to compare those with and without EFD on aggression and delinquent behavior from ages 3 to 5 years through 12 to 14 years.ResultsDelinquent behavior and aggression decreased normatively throughout childhood for those with and without EFD, although those with EFD showed precocious resurgences moving into early adolescence. Early first drinking was associated with delinquent behavior more than aggression. Early drinkers were more delinquent at most ages—with a direct effect of preschool predisposition on adolescent behavior only within the EFD group. Early first drinking was disproportionately likely among individuals with high levels of delinquent behavior at both 3 to 5 and 12 to 14 years of age but uncommon among individuals with low levels of delinquent behavior during those two age periods.ConclusionsEarly first drinking and delinquent behavior share a common diathesis evident before school entry. Intervention and prevention programs targeting problem drinking risk should focus on dismantling this emergent primarily delinquency-related developmental trajectory.     

Depressive-Like Behavior in Adolescents after Maternal Separation: Sex Differences, Controllability, and GABA

Exposure to adversity during development is an identified risk factor for depression later in life. In humans, early adversity accelerates the onset of depressive symptoms, which manifest during adolescence. Animal studies have used maternal separation as a model of early adversity to produce adult depressive-like behaviors, but have yet to examine these behaviors during adolescence. Moreover, the nature of depressive-like behaviors has not been well characterized in this model. Here, we used the triadic model of learned helplessness to understand controllability, helplessness, and motivational factors following maternal separation in male and female adolescent rats. We found sex-dependent changes in the effects of separation, with males demonstrating loss of controllability in an escapable shock condition, whereas females demonstrated motivational impairment in a no-shock condition. The effect, however, did not endure as adult females were no longer helpless. Reductions in parvalbumin, a GABAergic marker, in the prefrontal cortex of separated subjects relative to age-matched controls were evident and paralleled depressive-like behavior. Understanding the risk factors for depression, the nature of depressive-like behaviors, and their unique sex dependency may ultimately provide insight into improved treatments.     

Narrowly Versus Broadly Defined Autism Spectrum Disorders: Differences in Pre- and Perinatal Risk Factors

This study examined the differential contribution of pre- and perinatal risks in narrowly versus broadly defined autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and across core symptom domains, IQ and co-morbid problems. Children with a DSM-IV diagnosis of autistic disorder (AD) (n = 121) or pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) (n = 75) were compared to a typical control sample (n = 311). Diagnoses were based on extensive assessments between 12 and 49 months of age (M = 33.3, SD = 6.4) and re-evaluated at 43–98 months (M = 68.1, SD = 10.7) in 70 % of the cases. Compared with controls, cases with ASD were more likely to be firstborn and show a suboptimal condition after birth. Case mothers reported more infections and more stress during pregnancy. Although the ASD subgroups showed mostly overlapping risks, cases with PDD-NOS differed from those with AD by higher exposure to smoking during pregnancy (SDP) and by a negative association of smoking with IQ, regardless of confounders. SDP appears to contribute more to broadly defined (PDD-NOS) than to narrowly defined ASD (AD). Findings suggest differences in etiological contributors between ASD phenotypes.     

Gender Differences in Relations among Perceived Family Characteristics and Risky Health Behaviors in Urban Adolescents

Background

Research regarding the role of gender in relations between family characteristics and health risk behaviors has been limited.

Purpose

This study aims to investigate gender differences in associations between family processes and risk-taking in adolescents.

Methods

Adolescents (N = 249; mean age = 14.5 years) starting their first year at an urban high school in the northeastern USA completed self-report measures that assessed family characteristics (i.e., parental monitoring, family social support, family conflict) and health behaviors (i.e., tobacco use, alcohol use, marijuana use, sex initiation) as part of a prospective, community-based study. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to investigate gender differences in associations between the family characteristics and health behaviors.

Results

Among males, higher levels of perceived parental monitoring were associated with lower odds of using tobacco and having ever engaged in sex. Among females, higher levels of perceived parental monitoring were associated with lower odds of marijuana use, alcohol use, and having ever engaged in sex. However, in contrast to males, among females (a) higher levels of perceived family social support were associated with lower odds of alcohol use and having ever engaged in sex and (b) higher levels of perceived family conflict were associated with higher odds of marijuana use and having ever engaged in sex.

Conclusion

Family processes were more strongly related to health behaviors among adolescent females than adolescent males. Interventions that increase parental monitoring and family social support as well as decrease family conflict may help to protect against adolescent risk taking, especially for females.

     

Predictive Validity of the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale for Short-Term Suicidal Behavior: A Danish Study of Adolescents at a High Risk of Suicide

Using the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS), we examined the predictive and incremental predictive validity of past-month suicidal behavior and ideation for short-term suicidal behavior among adolescents at high risk of suicide. The study was conducted in 2014 on a sample of 85 adolescents (90.6% females) who participated at follow-up (85.9%) out of the 99 (49.7%) baseline respondents. All adolescents were recruited from a specialized suicide-prevention clinic in Denmark. Through multivariate logistic regression analyses, we examined whether baseline suicidal behavior predicted subsequent suicidal behavior (actual attempts and suicidal behavior of any type, including preparatory acts, aborted, interrupted and actual attempts; mean follow-up of 80.8 days, SD = 52.4). Furthermore, we examined whether suicidal ideation severity and intensity incrementally predicted suicidal behavior at follow-up over and above suicidal behavior at baseline. Actual suicide attempts at baseline strongly predicted suicide attempts at follow-up. Baseline suicidal ideation severity and intensity did not significantly predict future actual attempts over and above baseline attempts. The suicidal ideation intensity items deterrents and duration were significant predictors of subsequent actual attempts after adjustment for baseline suicide attempts and suicidal behavior of any type, respectively. Suicidal ideation severity and intensity, and the intensity items frequency, duration and deterrents, all significantly predicted any type of suicidal behavior at follow-up, also after adjusting for baseline suicidal behavior. The present study points to an incremental predictive validity of the C-SSRS suicidal ideation scales for short-term suicidal behavior of any type among high-risk adolescents.     

Connectedness and Perceived Burdensomeness among Adolescents at Elevated Suicide Risk: An Examination of the Interpersonal Theory of Suicidal Behavior

The interpersonal theory of suicidal behavior emphasizes the constructs of perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness, and acquired capacity, which warrant investigation in adolescents at risk for suicide due to interpersonal stressors. This study examined one component of the interpersonal theory of suicidal behavior, “suicidal desire” (suicidal ideation), in 129 adolescents (12–15 years) recruited from a general medical emergency department who screened positive for bully victimization, bully perpetration, or low interpersonal connectedness. Greater perceived burdensomeness combined with low family connectedness was a significant predictor of suicidal ideation. This suggests the importance of addressing connectedness and perceptions of burdensomeness in prevention and early intervention efforts with at-risk adolescents.