Effects of Parenting on Psychopathy in Children Psychopathy is a personality disorder more often generalized to antisocial personality disorder (APD). APD is characterized by lessened empathy for others, weak or nonexistent sense of wrongdoing, impulsive behavior, and lying to or manipulating others (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Although psychopathy, sociopathy, and APD are often used interchangeably, they stands as separate, if similar, diagnoses. The aggressive and antisocial behavior that many psychopaths display has led to a multitude of studies being conducted to learn whether or not early childhood intervention and better parenting can prevent the development of psychopathic characteristics. The pervasiveness of these traits
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The authors used a group of 66 mothers and children from domestic violence shelters. Children were between 4 and 9 years of age who met the DSM-IV criteria for conduct disorder and only mothers who reported at least one instance of personal physical violence from a male partner in the past 12 months were considered. The average income for the participants was $534. The sample included 40% black, 40% white and 20% Latino families. There is no mention of geographic region or gender of the children. Their paper focused mainly on quantitative …show more content…
The Project Support group received a manual detailing 12 child management skills presented in a sequence designed to help the mother-child relationship at first and later decrease the child's antisocial / problematic behavior. The manual also gave scenarios for the mothers to practice and homework for them to do. Additionally, the mothers in Project Support received therapy, safety evaluations, and donated goods. The families in the other group also received safety evaluations, emotional support, and were encouraged to make use of community resources. After the group division, mothers scored their children on 16 items of the Psychopathy Screening Device (PSD, a precursor to the APSD mentioned later). The participating mothers rated their children on a 0-2 scale (0=not true at all, 1=sometimes true, 2=definitely true) on each item. The PSD measures the psychopathic traits and tendencies of a child. Researchers also had the mothers fill out the Psychological Aggression and Physical Violence subscales of the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (RCTS) and the Consistency subscale of the Parenting Dimensions Inventory (PDI). The RCTS measures a mother’s psychological aggression (threats, verbal abuse) and a mother’s actual physical violence (hitting, kicking) by having them score themselves on a scale from 0-6 (0=never to 6=more than 20 times).
The authors used a group of 66 mothers and children from domestic violence shelters. Children were between 4 and 9 years of age who met the DSM-IV criteria for conduct disorder and only mothers who reported at least one instance of personal physical violence from a male partner in the past 12 months were considered. The average income for the participants was $534. The sample included 40% black, 40% white and 20% Latino families. There is no mention of geographic region or gender of the children. Their paper focused mainly on quantitative …show more content…
The Project Support group received a manual detailing 12 child management skills presented in a sequence designed to help the mother-child relationship at first and later decrease the child's antisocial / problematic behavior. The manual also gave scenarios for the mothers to practice and homework for them to do. Additionally, the mothers in Project Support received therapy, safety evaluations, and donated goods. The families in the other group also received safety evaluations, emotional support, and were encouraged to make use of community resources. After the group division, mothers scored their children on 16 items of the Psychopathy Screening Device (PSD, a precursor to the APSD mentioned later). The participating mothers rated their children on a 0-2 scale (0=not true at all, 1=sometimes true, 2=definitely true) on each item. The PSD measures the psychopathic traits and tendencies of a child. Researchers also had the mothers fill out the Psychological Aggression and Physical Violence subscales of the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (RCTS) and the Consistency subscale of the Parenting Dimensions Inventory (PDI). The RCTS measures a mother’s psychological aggression (threats, verbal abuse) and a mother’s actual physical violence (hitting, kicking) by having them score themselves on a scale from 0-6 (0=never to 6=more than 20 times).