DOES GENDER MODERATE THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN PSYCHOPATHIC PERSONALITY TRAITS AND EXTERNALIZING BEHAVIORS? A META-ANALYSIS

Montana Lorraine Ploe

Introduction: Psychopathy is a personality construct characterized by antagonistic and disinhibited characteristics that often disrupt normative interpersonal and affective functioning Psychopathic traits are a strong predictor of maladaptive socioemotional and behavioral outcomes, thus posing a large financial and societal burden. However, it is unclear whether psychopathic traits are similarly predictive of externalizing correlates in both men and women. The current meta-analysis examined whether gender moderates the relation between psychopathic traits and externalizing behaviors. Based on prior research suggesting gender differences in psychopathy and externalizing, I hypothesized that the correlation between psychopathic traits and externalizing would be greater in males compared to females across all types of externalizing except for social aggression. Method: The PsycINFO database was used to identify eligible studies. Studies were required to include separate statistics for both males and females either within the paper or on request. A total of 79 references (k = 83 reports) were included in the analyses. Studies were grouped and analyzed by type of externalizing (i.e., substance use, non-violent problematic behavior, violent aggression, and social aggression). Male and female correlations between psychopathic traits and externalizing were transformed into z scores and the difference between the transformed male and female variables were calculated to compute a gender difference variable for analyses. Results: There were consistent associations between most psychopathic traits and externalizing behaviors for both men and women. However, most of the main findings for gender differences did not support the hypothesis that the relation between psychopathic traits and externalizing behaviors would be stronger for male samples. Of 39 comparisons, only two yielded significant effects: Triarchic disinhibition was a better predictor of non-violent problematic behavior in men compared to women and triarchic meanness was a better predictor of violence and aggression in men compared to women. Conclusions: The present meta-analysis indicated that in general psychopathic traits are as good of a predictor for various externalizing behaviors in females as they are in males, regardless of type of psychopathy measure used.

DOES GENDER MODERATE THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN PSYCHOPATHIC PERSONALITY TRAITS AND EXTERNALIZING BEHAVIORS? A META-ANALYSIS

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