Profiles of Childhood Adversity Among Incarcerated Chinese Males and Their Associations with Personality Disorder Symptoms and Behavioral Problems

PRESENTATION TYPE: Individual Paper

CATEGORY/THEME: Epidemiology and Etiology

ABSTRACT BODY:

Introduction: Adverse childhood experiences (ACE) have lasting impact on individual’s long-term development into adolescence and adulthood (Baglivio et al., 2015). As one frequently investigated specific type of ACE, experiences of childhood maltreatment (CM), such as abuse and neglect, have higher prevalence among offenders than in the general population (Baglivio et al., 2015). CM experiences are associated with various kinds of personality disorder (PD; e.g., L. Cohen et al., 2014) and further increase risk for offending (e.g., Craig et al., 2017) and recidivism (O'Driscoll et al., 2012). Few studies have investigated how multiple CM experiences co-occur and how they influence personality disorder symptoms and behavioral problems Chinese population. The current study aimed to investigate the prevalence and different profiles of multiple self-reported CM experiences in a large sample of incarcerated Chinese males, and to examine their associations with multiple types of PD symptoms and clusters, and problematic behaviors.

Method: Using a sample of 1001 incarcerated Chinese males (M_age = 30.86 years), this study identified profiles of self-reported childhood maltreatment experiences and examined their associations with Axis II personality disorder symptoms (e.g., paranoid disorder) and behavioral problems (e.g., violent crime). Latent profile model was built on five types of CM: emotional, physical, and sexual abuse; emotional and physical neglect. After determining the CM subgroups, means of PD symptoms were compared across subgroups by MANCOVA, and prevalence of criminal behaviors was compared by logistic regression models, with age and education level as covariates.

Results: The incarcerated males were found with high prevalence and co-occurrence of childhood maltreatment. Latent profile analysis revealed four profiles: Minimal Maltreatment (61.5%), Low Abuse and High Neglect (26.6%), High Sexual Abuse with Multiple Maltreatment (4%), and High Physical and Emotional Maltreatment (7.8%). Profiles with high neglect level showed higher Cluster A personality disorder symptoms (i.e., problematic close relationship, eccentric thinking and behavior) as well as borderline, avoidant, and dependent symptoms than those with minimal maltreatment. The two profiles with moderate to high abuse level (i.e., High Sexual Abuse with Multiple Maltreatment, and High Physical and Emotional Maltreatment) showed elevated symptoms in all clusters of personality disorder and higher prevalence of juvenile offense than the other two profiles. High Physical and Emotional Maltreatment profile also had higher prevalence of violent offending and recidivism.

Conclusions: The current results strengthen ACE as a key risk factor for criminal behaviors, and further suggest that CM and PD should be included in psychiatric evaluations, especially in incarcerated population. These findings revealed the importance and utility of identifying profiles of co-occurring maltreatment to tailor treatment based on specific maltreatment experiences and their co-occurrence to address negative outcomes associated with each maltreatment profile.