Childhood Traumatic Experience, Attachment Quality, and Parenting Style as Predicting Factors of Psychopathic Behaviour

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate how childhood traumatic experiences, attachment qualities with parents and peers and perceived parenting style contribute to psychopathic behaviours among inmates. A size of 270 institutionalised participants responded to a questionnaire comprising items from the Levenson’s Self Report Psychopathy (LSRP, ? = .83), Early Trauma Inventory Self-Report Short Form (Cronbach’s ? = .89), Parenting Style Inventory-II (Cronbach’s  ? = .75), and Inventory of Parent and Peers Attachments (Cronbach’s ? = .83). The results showed that early childhood experiences of sexual abuse showed significant prediction of psychopathy [? =.24, t = 2.63, p <.05]. Alienation in attachment quality significantly predicted psychopathy [? = -.19, t = 3.01, p < .01]. Similarly, parenting style  autonomy-granting significantly predicted psychopathy [? = .25, t = 3.64, p < .01]. The study concludes that the experience of childhood trauma, the quality of attachment and parenting style could have implication for psychopathic behaviour pattern.