Psychopathy causes a great burden for both the patient, his or her caregivers and for the rest of society. Secondary psychopathy seems to be environment-related and secondary psychopaths may...Show morePsychopathy causes a great burden for both the patient, his or her caregivers and for the rest of society. Secondary psychopathy seems to be environment-related and secondary psychopaths may therefore benefit from treatment. An important topic of psychopathy research is to examine what causes the development of secondary psychopathy in children. The prevalence of personality disorders is higher in ethnic minority groups within Western Europe. A possible explanation for the increased risk of personality disorders in ethnic minority groups is lower self-esteem, which can be caused by the experience of being isolated from a group. This study focused on the relationship between implicit and explicit self-esteem and secondary psychopathic traits in adolescents between 12 and 17 years and the effect of ethnicity on this relationship. Questionnaires were used to measure psychopathic traits and explicit self-esteem, respectively by the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Implicit self-esteem was determined with the aid of a computer task, the Implicit Association Task Self-Esteem, in which the reaction time was measured. As predicted, low self-esteem in Moroccan youth was correlated with higher levels of psychopathic traits and vice versa, which might be explained by the social-defeat model. On the contrary, this relationship wasn’t found for native Dutch adolescents. There seems to be no effect of social defeat for native Dutch adolescents. The ethnic differences in the relationship between self-esteem and psychopathic traits could not be explained by differences in socio-economic background. These results demonstrate that self-esteem is important in predicting secondary psychopathic traits in Moroccan youth. The social-defeat model gives an explanation for this relationship. In the future preventive programs should focus on increasing self-esteem, especially among ethnic minority groups, to reduce the chance of developing secondary psychopathic traits and psychopathy.Show less
The prevalence of people with a disorder in the autism spectrum (ASD) is estimated on 60 to 100 on 10.000 people. A deficit in executive functions is a possible explanation of the behavior shown in...Show moreThe prevalence of people with a disorder in the autism spectrum (ASD) is estimated on 60 to 100 on 10.000 people. A deficit in executive functions is a possible explanation of the behavior shown in ASD. Mothers of children with ASD experience stress in the daily intercourse with their child. The deficit in executive functions might be a predictor for this maternal stress, because the effort-reward proportion is out of balance. The aim of this study was to investigate whether there is a relation between executive functions of children and maternal stress and which of the executive functions contributes the most to maternal stress. This study included 29 mothers with their child (Mage= 4,47, SDage= 1.10). The participants were recruited at schools, libary’s, social assistance organisations and throughsocial networks. The NOSI was used to mearsure maternal stress, the SRS was used to measure signs of autism, the BRIEF-p was used to measure executive functions of the child. Significant correlations were found between all EF and maternal stress: inhibition r=.75 (p<.01), cognitive flexibility r=.72 (p<.01), working memory r=.73 (p<.01), planning and organizing r=.78, (p<.01). The correlations between signs of autism and maternal stress was r=.86 (p<.01). Multiple regression analysis showed that Autism symptoms, β=.62, t(23)=4.59, p<.01, and planning and organization, β=.34, t(23)=2.49, p=.02, contributed to maternal stress and explained 80% of the stress. Signs of autism contributed the most. Results and suggestions for future research are discussed.Show less
Introduction: Research on the development of executive functions (EF) in children can focus on multiple facets, but can also focus on a specific part such as planning, working memory and inhibition...Show moreIntroduction: Research on the development of executive functions (EF) in children can focus on multiple facets, but can also focus on a specific part such as planning, working memory and inhibition. The various executive functions can be distinguished clearly from each other, but cannot be seen independently. There is no clear data on the differences in the development of EF between boys and girls in their childhood. The present study focuses on the development of the executive functions planning, inhibition and working memory in boys and girls aged four to seven years over a period of one year. Methods: This study consisted of 462 children of the data from the ongoing study ‘Talentenkracht’. The data was collected between January to April 2009 (T1) and between January to May 2010 (T2). In this study, the executive functions planning (subtest "zoo map" of the Behavioural Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome for Children (BADS-NL)), inhibition (subtest GoNoGo of the Amsterdam Neuropsychological Tasks (ANT)) and working memory (subtest Spatial Temporal Sequencing (STS) on the ANT) were investigated. Using paired-samples T-tests and univariate analyses of variance, the relation and development of the three executive functions, gender and age have been studied. Results: This study involved 247 boys (53.5%) and 215 girls (46.5%). The mean age (M) at T1 was 5.2 years and at T2 6.2 years. The mean outcome on T1 for planning was -1.45, inhibition 34.4 and working memory 12.0. This was at T2 -1.03, 28.4 and 22.4, respectively. For boys and girls, there was a significant difference in mean outcomes between T1 and T2 for inhibition and working memory. The development of inhibition has a significant relationship with gender at T1 and T2. Both measurements remained significantly different after adjustment for age. In the development of the working memory, there is both a significant relationship with age at T1 as well as at T2. Conclusions: The present study showed differences in the development of the executive functions planning, inhibition and working memory in boys and girls aged four to seven years. Apart from the expected (natural) development of the EF over a period of 11.3 months average, gender was also a profound influence on inhibition. As for planning, no significant results did occur. In the development of the EF memory, time is more indicative than gender.Show less
