Selfish parents, parenting practices, and psychopathic traits in children

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-1-2021

Abstract

Parental personality and parenting behavior have been associated with the development of psychopathic traits in offspring. However, no study has examined the effect of parental dispositional selfishness on the development of psychopathic traits in offspring, and the potential mechanism underlying this relationship. To address this issue, parents' reports on their dispositional selfishness, negative and positive parenting behavior, and child's psychopathic traits were collected for a group of children from the community (n = 118, 47% male, mean age = 14.1 years). Results showed that parental selfishness was associated with grandiose-manipulative (GM), daring-impulsive (DI), and callous-unemotional (CU) traits in children. In addition, the egocentric selfishness-GM relationship was indirectly mediated by parenting behavior including lack of involvement, poor monitoring, and inconsistent discipline, whereas the association with CU traits was directly mediated by lack of involvement. These effects remained significant after controlling for child's sex, age, race, social adversity, and a prior measure of psychopathic traits. Findings provide initial empirical evidence on the effect of parental selfishness on a child's psychopathic traits, and further support to the proposition that distinct etiology may underlie different dimensions of psychopathic traits.

Identifier

85117226594 (Scopus)

Publication Title

Behavioral Sciences and the Law

External Full Text Location

https://doi.org/10.1002/bsl.2541

e-ISSN

10990798

ISSN

07353936

PubMed ID

34668235

First Page

624

Last Page

640

Issue

5

Volume

39

Grant

SC1GM127243

Fund Ref

National Institutes of Health

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