A taxonomy of antisocial behaviors: The subtypes and their associated features

Abstract

Background. Adolescent antisocial behaviors are versatile in terms of their onset, severity, pervasiveness, continuity, and developmental outcomes. A substantial body of literature on developmental pathway of antisocial behaviors indicates that meaningful subtypes exist within these heterogeneous antisocial behaviors, rendering important implications to their etiology, causal mechanism and intervention. This study tests a taxonomy of antisocial behavior by examining whether different offending groups can be distinguished by their different group features including background risks and external correlates. First, two broad offending groups, i.e., the early-onset group and the adolescent-onset group were identified in a clinical sample of 118 adjudicated male adolescents based on age of onset of symptoms of Conduct Disorder. Further, two distinct subtypes, i.e. antisocial behavior associated with symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and antisocial behavior associated with callous-unemotional traits (CU traits), a defining feature of psychopathy, were hypothesized to coexist within the broad early-onset offending group, based on two lines of recent studies indicating ADHD and CU traits as important correlates of antisocial behaviors. These two subgroups were identified within the sample in this current study. Method. Data were collected from 118 adjudicated male adolescents from a centralized probation facility in Hong Kong and 63 non-delinquent male control subjects from mainstream secondary schools, all aged between 12 and 17. Group comparisons and multinominal logistic regression were performed to test whether these offending groups could be distinguished by different background risks and deficits including variables pertaining to cognitive processes, family, parenting, and deviant peers, etc. Results. The early-onset offending group could be differentiated from the adolescent-onset offending group by their association with adolescent adjustment difficulties, more background risks, ADHD diagnosis, and callous unemotional traits. The two early-onset subgroups, early-onset ADHD and early-onset CU traits group, shared similarities of having severer delinquency and poorer adolescent adjustment, but demonstrated differences in terms of disinhibitory processes. Conclusion. Different offending groups could be discerned by their distinctive associated group risks and deficits, giving evidence to different developmental pathways to antisocial behaviors. Implications to understanding and intervention of antisocial behaviors were discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)