title: Personality correlates of physiological response to stress among incarcerated juveniles.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To examine the relationship between personality type and physiological response to stress among juvenile delinquents.
  
  
  METHODS
  Delinquent males (N = 42, mean age 16.5, SD = 1) recruited from a convenience sample at local juvenile detention facility were compared to a male control sample from a local high school (N = 79; mean age 16.1, SD = 0.8). All participants completed the Weinberger Adjustment Inventory and a Stress-Inducing Speech Task during both of which heart rate was measured.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared to controls, delinquent youths showed significantly lower heart rates under both free association and stress conditions (p < 0.05) and a lower rate of increase during stressful stimuli (p < 0.05). Among delinquents, those with a non-reactive personality type appeared to show consistently lower levels of physiological arousal as measured by heart rate.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Delinquents consistently had lower overall levels of arousal as measured by heart rate. In delinquent boys, we also found a persistently low arousal group with a non-reactive psychological pattern. This combination may be a forerunner of future psychopathy or a product of the developmental trajectory that leads to and results from psychopathic behavior.
authors.affiliation: University of California, San Francisco,CA 94143-0850, USA. karnikn@dahsm.ucsf.edu
authors.forename: Niranjan S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Karnik
authors.forename: Arne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Popma
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Blair
authors.forename: Leena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Khanzode
authors.forename: Samantha P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Steiner
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D001143:Arousal; D002605:Character; D005608:Free Association; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011329:Prisoners / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications*