Assortative mating for antisocial behavior: developmental and methodological implications.

Assortative mating for antisocial behavior: developmental and methodological implications.
R F Krueger et al.; May 1998
Behavior Genetics


Abstract

Do people mate assortatively for antisocial behavior? If so, what are the implications for the development and persistence of antisocial behavior? We investigated assortative mating for antisocial behavior and its correlates in a sample of 360 couples from Dunedin, New Zealand. We found substantial assortative mating for self-reports of antisocial behavior per se and for self-reports of couple members' tendencies to associate with antisocial peers (0.54 on average). Perceptions about the likelihood of social sanctions for antisocial behavior (e.g., being caught by the authorities or losing the respect of one's family) showed moderate assortative mating (0.32 on average). However, assortative mating for personality traits related to antisocial behavior was low (0.15 on average). These findings suggest that, whereas assortative mating for many individual-difference variables (such as personality traits) is low, assortative mating for actual antisocial behaviors is substantial. We conclude that future family studies of antisocial behavior should endeavor to measure and understand the influence of assortative mating. In addition, we outline a testable behavior-genetic model for the development of antisocial behavior, in which genes and environments promoting or discouraging antisocial behavior become concentrated within families (due to assortative mating), giving rise to widely varying individual developmental trajectories that are, nevertheless, similar within families.

Longitudinal Associations of Cognitive Ability, Personality Traits and School Grades with Antisocial Behaviour

Longitudinal Associations of Cognitive Ability, Personality Traits and School Grades with Antisocial Behaviour
Rene Mottus et al., 2011
http://psych.ut.ee/~jyri/en/M%F5ttus-Guljajev_EJP2012.pdf


Abstract

This study investigated the role of adolescents’ cognitive ability, personality traits and school success in predicting later criminal behaviour. Cognitive ability, the five-factor model personality traits and the school grades of a large sample of Estonian schoolboys (N ¼ 1919) were measured between 2001 and 2005. In 2009, judicial databases were searched to identify participants who had been convicted of misdemeanours or criminal offences. Consistent with previous findings, having a judicial record was associated with lower cognitive ability, grade point average, agreeableness, and conscientiousness and higher neuroticism. In multivariate path models, however, the contributions of cognitive ability and conscientiousness were accounted for by school grades and the effect of neuroticism was also accounted for by other variables, leaving grade point average and agreeableness the only independent predictors of judicial record status.