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T E Moffitt

Publications and source records attributed to T E Moffitt.

66 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1990

Juvenile delinquency and attention deficit disorder: boys' developmental trajectories from age 3 to age 15.

This article describes a longitudinal analysis of the behavior of a birth cohort of 435 boys. 4 groups were defined at age 13 on the basis of both self-reported delinquent behavior and professional diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder: ADD + delinquent, ADD only, delinquent only, and nondisordered. Biennial correlates of delinquency (antisocial behavior problems, verbal intelligence, reading difficulty, and family adversity) were traced across childhood. The ADD + delinquent boys consistently fared the worst on the assessments of family adversity, verbal intelligence, and reading. Their antisocial behavior began before school age, escalated at school entry, and persisted into adolescence. The ADD-only boys had normal family, intelligence, and reading scores, and showed only mild antisocial behavior in middle childhood. The delinquent-only boys showed no early risk from family, low intelligence, or reading deficit, and remained relatively free of conduct problems until they initiated delinquency at age 13. Persistence of criminal offending beyond adolescence is predicted for the ADD + delinquent boys.

Achievement↗
PubMed1989

Sex differences in property crime in a Danish adoption cohort.

Sex differences in genetic and environmental influences on criminal behavior against property were studied in a birth cohort of 6129 male and 7065 female Danish adoptees and their biological and adoptive parents. Both genetic and environmental factors were found to contribute to variation in liability to property criminality, the relative proportions of variance explained being similar in males and females. Important shared- and nonshared-family environmental factors were present. In separate analyses of average liability toward property criminality, however, convicted females appeared to be more genetically predisposed than convicted males, a conclusion based on the finding that female property offenders were more likely than male offenders to have convicted biological (but adopted-away) offspring. On the other hand, property-offending males and females did not appear to differ in their average shared-family environmental liabilities, since conviction rates did not differ for adoptees of convicted adoptive mothers and fathers. Also, social class in the adoptive parents of convicted sons and daughters were comparable, further indicating that average shared-family environmental liabilities do not differ between the sexes.

Adoption↗
PubMed1989

Neuropsychological correlates of psychopathology in an unselected cohort of young adolescents.

Members of a birth cohort were assessed for psychopathology and neuropsychological dysfunction at age 13. Ss who met DSM-III criteria for a single disorder, multiple disorders, and no disorder were compared on 5 composite neuropsychological measures. The multiple disorders group performed significantly worse than did the nondisordered group on the Verbal, Visuospatial, Verbal Memory, and Visual-Motor Integration factors. They also showed the highest rate of neuropsychological impairment. The attention-deficit disorder group performed significantly worse than did the nondisordered group on the Verbal Memory and Visual-Motor Integration factors, and the anxiety disorder group performed significantly worse than did the nondisordered group on the Visual-Motor Integration factor. Results suggest that neuropsychological dysfunction is more often associated with multiple rather than single, psychiatric disorders in adolescents. The problem of comorbidity in studies of neuropsychological function in childhood and adolescent psychopathology is highlighted.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

A prospective replication of the protective effects of IQ in subjects at high risk for juvenile delinquency.

The purpose of the study was to test the replicability of a protective effect of high IQ against criminality. Support has been found in prior studies for the hypotheses that Ss at high risk would have an elevated risk of serious criminal involvement, that seriously criminal Ss would have a lower mean IQ score than noncriminal Ss, and that Ss at high risk who had not become involved in serious criminal behavior would have the highest IQs. This report tests these hypotheses in a prospective design. Subjects were 1,037 members of a longitudinal investigation of a New Zealand birth cohort. IQs were examined for male and female Ss who were divided into 4 groups formed on the basis of risk status at age 5 years and delinquency outcome at ages 13 and 15. Analyses were conducted with and without mild delinquents excluded from the nondelinquent groups. We found that male and female delinquents showed significantly lower IQ scores than nondelinquents. By varying S selection procedures, we also found that a very high IQ may help boys, even those at risk, to stay free of delinquency altogether.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1988

Self-reported delinquency, neuropsychological deficit, and history of attention deficit disorder.

This study was designed to evaluate the possibility that a pattern of cognitive deficit is associated with delinquent behavior, while avoiding some of the methodological problems of previous research. The Self-Report Early Delinquency instrument and a research battery of neuropsychological tests were administered blindly to an unselected cohort of 678 13-year-olds. Because the diagnosis of attention deficit disorder (ADD) was found at markedly elevated rates in the backgrounds of these delinquents, the possibility was examined that the neuropsychological deficits of delinquents might be limited to delinquents with histories of ADD. Although delinquents with past ADD were more cognitively impaired than non-ADD delinquents, both groups scored significantly below nondelinquents on verbal, visuospatial, and visual-motor integration skills. In addition, ADD delinquents scored poorly on memory abilities. Subjects with ADD who had not developed delinquent behavior were not as cognitively impaired as ADD delinquents, suggesting that it is the specific comorbidity of ADD and delinquency that bears neuropsychological study.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Parental mental disorder and offspring criminal behavior: an adoption study.

It is not unreasonable to expect that some biological predisposition toward antisocial behavior may characterize the most serious of recidivistic and violent criminal offenders. This study used the adoption method to examine the contribution of mental disorder in adoptees' biological backgrounds to their recidivistic and violent criminal offending. Multiple recidivistic nonviolent criminal behavior was found at a significantly elevated rate in adopted-away sons when mental disorder and criminal involvement were characteristic of the adoptees' biological families. A similar, but nonsignificant, elevation was found for rates of violence. Parental diagnostic types associated most strongly with sons' later criminal involvement were drug abuse, alcohol abuse, and personality disorders. Parental psychoses were not related to offspring recidivism or violence in this cohort. Possible confounding effects of missing data, institutionalization prior to adoption, information given to adoptive parents by the adoption agencies about the child's biological background, historical period, perinatal factors, and selective placement were considered. Perinatal factors could not be discounted as contributors to the findings.

Adolescent↗