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Industry: Email Alert RSS FeedBiosocial studies of antisocial and violent behavior in children and adults: a review - 1
Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, August, 2002 by Adrian Raine
A practical barrier to future biosocial research is the simple fact that few psychosocial researchers take into account biological variables, and few biological researchers take into account social variables. Even when they do, psychosocial variables are often conceptualized as covariates or nuisance variables by biological researchers rather than as moderators. Researchers need to face the fact that there will likely be diminishing returns from further research on currently known risk factors and that more will be gained from examining interactions between risk factors. Indeed, researchers who do not test for interaction effects that may well exist, and who obtain nonsignificant main effects, will erroneously conclude that the variables in question are of no etiological significance. Although the measurement of biological variables poses significant challenges for psychosocial researchers, low resting heart rate is the best-replicate biological correlate of antisocial behavior in child and adolescent samples (Raine, 1993), takes only 1 minute to asses, and can be measured cheaply and easily using a stethoscope, digital heart rate meter, or by taking a pulse manually. Incorporating even this simple biological measure into psychosocial longitudinal research would be a step in the right direction.
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Finally, biosocial studies of antisocial behavior should not be restricted to risk and protective factors but also need to consider prevention implications at two levels. First, environmental manipulations can be used to alter biological risk factors. For example, an environmental enrichment at ages 3-5 years using a randomized, stratified design resulted in significant increases in psychophysiological arousal and attention 8 years later at age 11 years (Raine, Venables, et al., 2001). Second, psychosocial influences may moderate the effects of a prevention program on antisocial behavior. As one example, Olds et al. (1998) demonstrated that a prenatal and early postnatal early health prevention program was more successful in reducing delinquency at age 15 years in unmarried, low SES mothers than less disadvantaged mothers. Biosocial research on risk and protective factors themselves should clearly be a priority for establishing a new generation of more biosocially-informed prevention and intervention programs.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research was conducted with the support of an Independent Scientist Award (K02 MH01114-01) from the National Institute of Mental Health.
Received February 1, 2002; accepted February 12, 2002
(1.) This research is based on an invited address given at the 10th Scientific Meeting of the International Society for Research in Child and Adolescent Psychopathology, June 26-30, 2001.
REFERENCES
Archer, J. (1991). The influence of testosterone on human aggression. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 82, 1-28.
Arseneault, L., Tremblay, R. E., Boulerice, B., & Saucier, J. F. (2002). Obstetrical complications and violent delinquency: Testing two developmental pathways. Child Development, 73, 496-508.
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