Childhood predictors differentiate life-course persistent and adolescence-limited antisocial pathways among males and females.
This article reports a comparison on childhood risk factors of males and females exhibiting childhood-onset and adolescent-onset antisocial behavior, using data from the Dunedin longitudinal study. Childhood-onset delinquents had childhoods of inadequate parenting, neurocognitive problems, and temperament and behavior problems, whereas adolescent-onset delinquents did not have these pathological backgrounds. Sex comparisons showed a male-to-female ratio of 10:1 for childhood-onset delinquency but a sex ratio of only 1.5:1 for adolescence-onset delinquency. Showing the same pattern as males, childhood-onset females had high-risk backgrounds but adolescent-onset females did not. These findings are consistent with core predictions from the taxonomic theory of life-course persistent and adolescence-limited antisocial behavior.
Moffitt
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TE
University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA. t.moffitt@iop.kcl.ac.uk
Caspi
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A
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D013694:Temperament; D013997:Time Factors