L7 - Environment and Early Health Influences

Question 1

How is violence and antisocial behaviour being considered by public health perspectives?

Answer 1

ASVB is beginning to be considered as medical health conditions, on the same level as AIDS, obesity and flu.

Question 2

What are the 4 questions that public health ask in regards to ASVB?

Answer 2

• How often and in what situations does violence occur?
• What are the causes?
• What are the cures?
• What kind of treatment or interventions can be applied at the population level?

Question 3

Which viewpoints are the public health perspective of ASVB distinct from?

Answer 3

Sociological and clinical - they focus more on the individual, whereas public health perspectives look at the wider group trends.

Question 4

In what case could we confirm a biosocial interaction effect on ASVB?

Answer 4

When groups are formed based on variations on the biological and social factors, and the presence of both risk factors exponentially increase the rate of ASVB outcomes (Raine, 2002)

Question 5

What was the rationale for studying the predisposition to violent crime at 18, following birth complications combined with early maternal rejection at age 1 (Raine et al., 1994)?

Answer 5

• no other studies have considered this bio-social interaction
• the potential importance of early child rejection in predisposing to violence hadn’t been assessed
• it was unclear whether the association was specific to violence, or whether it can also be seen with non violence or repeated minor criminal offences.
• typically clinical samples were used, which weren’t representative of the general population

Question 6

What was measured and found when testing for the effect of biosocial interactions (early maternal rejection and birth complications) on the rate of violent crime?

Answer 6

Raine et al., (1994:

Measures:

• birth complications (age 0)
• early maternal rejection (age 1)
• violent crime (age 18)

Those with social and neurobiological risk factors were much more likely than those with either just social, just neurobiological, or no risk factors to engage in violent crime at age 18.

Question 7

What did Raine et al’s (1997) replication of biosocial interactions on violent crime find, and how was it different to the initial (1994) study?

Answer 7

Tested violent crime engagement up to age 34, and categorised into types of violent crime.

Biosocial interaction was again present for robbery, rape and murder, assault and domestic violence, but not for other forms of violent crimes. Interaction only present when onset of violent crime occurred before age 18.

It was putting the child in social care and attempting to abort within the first 4 months of life that were most associated aspects of maternal rejection which contributed to the interaction.

Question 8

Apart from Raine’s initial 2 studies into the biosocial interaction effect on violent crime, were there later replications which supported findings or not?

Answer 8

Yes, 3 further studies tested similar factors/interactions, and found a biosocial interaction on some form of ASB/criminal behaviour in all of them.

Piquero & Tibbetts (1999)
Beck & Shaw (2005)
Hodgins et al., (2001)

Question 9

What are the mechanisms that could account for the association between birth complications and social risks, in increasing the risk of ASB?

Answer 9

• reduced neuronal density following chronic fetal hypoxia.
• Fetal hypoxia also leads to a reduction in white matter integrity (poorer FA, functional anisotropy)

Therefore, poorer outcomes when combined with environmental risks such as maternal rejection.

Question 10

What did Waldrop (1978) find about whether newborn minor physical abnormalities predicted attention span, peer aggression and impulsivity at age 3?

Answer 10

Physical anomalies result from toxins within the womb - smoking, drinking, etc.

At newborn period, the more the physical anomalies the shorter the attention span, the higher the ratings on peer aggression and impulsivity.

Question 11

What did Pine et al., (1997) find about the interaction between environmental risks and minor physical anomalies on the later instance of psychiatric impairment?

Answer 11

Environmental risks (disadvantaged scale) were more predictive of psychiatric impairment at age 17 in 7 year old subjects with high scores on the minor physical anomalies (MPA) scale than subjects with low scores.

Interaction was also predictive of disruptive behaviour disorders (now known as CD)

Question 12

What was found regarding biosocial interactions between MPA scores and violent arrests?

Answer 12

Mednick et al., (1988):

For those with low scores on MPA, the stability of the family did not have an impact.

For those with high MPA scores, unstable families lead to higher likelihood of being arrested for violence at 21.

Question 13

In most people, which digit is longer, the 2nd or the 4th?

Answer 13

In most people, the 4th digit is longer than the 2nd.

Question 14

What is the relationship between the level of testosterone and the 2D:4D ratio?

Answer 14

The higher the level of testosterone, the lower the 2D:4D ratio (the 4th digit will be longer compared to the 2nd)

Therefore, the ratio is more pronounced in men.

Question 15

In men, what is a lower 2D:4D ratio linked to?

Answer 15

• Sensation seeking, boredom and a larger number of lifetime sexual partners.
• higher impulsivity
• lower empathy

Question 16

What did Bailey et al., (2005) find about the relationship between the 2D:4D ratio and the level of aggression in males?

Answer 16

Association between lower 2D:4D ratios and higher physical aggression.

Question 17

What did Coyne et al., (2007) find about the association between digit ratio and aggression in females?

Answer 17

Association between a lower 2D:4D ratio and higher ratings on 4 measures of indirect aggression.

Question 18

What did Hanoch et al., (2012) find about the differences in the 2D:4D ratio between offenders and non-offenders?

Answer 18

Offenders were higher on impulsivity than non-offenders. Offenders also had a lower 2D:4D ratio than non offenders.

Question 19

What is the cross-cultural evidence for the relationship between 2D:4D ratios and aggression/

Answer 19

Chinese sample of children:

Liu et al., (2012) - association between higher aggression, lower attention, higher externalising problems, with lower ratios. Only in boys, and only for the left hand.

Previous studies replicate findings in the US and UK.

Question 20

What did Pratt’s (2016) meta analysis on the digit ratio find?

Answer 20

Small effect size of .047 found for the relationship between 2D:4D ratio - this is only .0.2%.

Huge variability in results across studies.

Therefore, there is a relationship but the importance is limited, and potentially dwarfed by other risk factors.

Question 21

What is the relationship between smoking during pregnancy and the 2D:4D digit ratio? What would mediate this link/lack of a link?

Answer 21

Rizwan et al., (2007)

Women who smoke during pregnancy will lead to a greater testosterone exposure, decreasing the 2D:4D ratio of offspring.

Question 22

What did Pratt et al., (2006) find about smoking during pregnancy and antisocial outcomes?

Answer 22

Link between smoking during pregnancy and conduct disorder in children and violent offending during adulthood.

Question 23

The link between smoking during pregnancy and antisocial outcomes has been shown despite what?

Answer 23

Different samples and outcomes:

• European, North American and New Zealand sample
• Caucasian and non-Caucasian
• Clinical and population-based
• Children, adolescent and adults
• Dependent variables (childhood disruptive behaviour v criminal behaviour)

(Pratt et al., 2006)

Association still holds when taking into account:

• crime and ASPD in the parents
• low SES
• low maternal education level
• mother’s age at child birth
• family size
• bad parenting
• family problems
• parental psychiatric diagnoses Rasanen et al., (1999)

Question 24

How do we know whether or not the association between smoking during pregnancy and antisocial outcomes, isn’t a result of heritability/genetic factors?

Answer 24

Large twin studies

Question 25

Describe what twin studies conclude about the influence of genetics on the relationship between smoking during pregnancy and antisocial outcomes in youth.

Answer 25

Maternal prenatal smoking predicts offspring’s CD symptoms beyond the effects of heritable risk.

Evidence that half of the association between prenatal smoking and child CD problems could be due to genetics, but the results showed that prenatal smoking was significantly linked to children’s behavioural outcomes, even after controlling for genetic influences.