Browsing by Author "Laurila, Eveliina"

Goals. Violence is a significant problem in society, thus it is important to recognize its predisposing factors. Psychopathy has been identified as one of the factors that significantly increases the risk for violent behaviour. The core characteristics of psychopathy include manipulation, the absence of feelings of remorse and guiltiness, as well as the inability for empathy. Other factors that may increase the risk of violent behaviour have also been identified, but it is unclear whether these factors retain their effects regardless of the level of psychopathy. In order to prevent the violent behaviour in psychopathic adolescents it is important to identify the factors that increase the risk of violent behaviour and alter the association between psychopathy and violence. The factors regarding family, such as monitoring and the quality of relationship between the parent and the child, have been surveyed to some extent. Some of the results are promising. Neither the socioeconomic status nor performance in school has been surveyed before but it is possible that these factors decrease the risk of violent behaviour. The goal for this study is to examine whether monitoring, good parent-child relationship, good socioeconomic status and good school performance decrease the risk of violent behaviour regardless of the level of psychopathy. In addition, the study examines whether these factors alter the association between psychopathy and violence. Methods. The survey sample is a part of Juvenile Delinquency in Finland 2012 –dataset which is a nationally representative self-report survey. The sample consists of 4855 ninth grade students who completed the survey anonymously online during a school day. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the study questions. Results and conclusions. Monitoring, good parent-child relationship, and good school performance was discovered to reduce the risk of violent behaviour regardless the level of psychopathy. In addition, these factors as well as socioeconomic status altered the association between psychopathy and violence. According to the results the association between psychopathy and violence is weaker in the case of good socioeconomic status than in low socioeconomic status. This result is promising and can indicate that with financial wealth a psychopathic adolescent is less likely to utilize violence to achieve their goals. Furthermore, the results concerning monitoring, good parent-child relationship and good school performance give hope to the notion that these factors may reduce the risk of violence even in adolescents with psychopathic traits. However, more research is needed to make solid conclusions.