Browsing by Subject "ystävien piirteet"

Aims. Adolescence is crucial time for establishing friendships. It is known that personality traits are associated with the quality and the characteristics of the friendships. Psychopathy is a personality disorder, which includes significant abnormalities in interpersonal, affective and behavioral traits. The aim of this study was examine the relationship between youth's psychopathic personality traits and the quality of their friendship. We also examined the associations with the characteristics of the friends. The results of the earlier studies are somewhat conflicting. Based on the earlier studies, we hypothesize that the psychopathic personality traits are associated with the poorer quality and support of the friendships. We also assumed that the psychopathic personality traits are associated with the criminal and psychiatric characteristics of friends. It was assumed that the primary traits of psychopathy were more strongly associated with the quality of friendship than the secondary traits. We also controlled the family-based variable, the parental warmth, to examine the independent explanatory power of the psychopathic personality traits. Methods. The data and the subjects were gathered from the American longitudinal study "The Pathways to Desistance". In this cross-sectional study the sample consisted from 1238 youths, who were convicted of serious criminal acts. The subjects' age range from 14 to 19 years. In this study we examine the psychopathic personality traits, the quality of friendship, the parental warmth, and the characteristics of friends. The associations were examined by using the linear regression analysis and the binary logistic regression analysis in two different databases. Results and conclusions. The psychopathic personality traits were associated with the poorer quality of friendship even when controlling the parental warmth found in youths' family. Youths, who were high on psychopathic personality traits, had higher probability of having friends who had criminal or psychiatric background, were older, and the frequency of contact were higher compared to the youths who were low on psychopathic personality traits. The results indicated that the psychopathic personality traits had an influence on perception of the support and the quality of friendship. These results help us to understand the social consequences of psychopathy for the youths themselves, and their friends. Personality traits can shape perceptions and probably lead to engagement with delinquent peers.