Till Örebro universitet

There has been a longstanding interest in autonomic activity in relation to criminal deviancy, antisocial behavior (ASB), and psychopathy. Among the autonomic measures studied to date, considerable evidence supports low rest-ing heart rate (HR) early in life as one of the most robust predictors of later ASB (Farrington, 1997). Some studies have examined stimulation seeking and fearlessness as possible trait factors accounting for the low HR/ASB rela-tionship (Hammerton et al., 2017; Portnoy et al., 2014; Sijstema et al., 2010), but the individual difference basis of this relationship remains unclear. The current study tested for associations of resting HR at ages 9–10 with triarchic psychopathy traits of boldness, meanness, and disinhibition along with ASB later in life (ages 19–20) among participants (N = 687) from a longitudinal investigation, the Risk Factors for Antisocial Behavior (RFAB; Baker et al., 2013) project. Resting HR was negatively associated with both violent and nonviolent behavior, and with externalizing problems more broadly. It was also related negatively to triarchic traits of boldness and disinhibition, with the relationship somewhat stronger for boldness. Importantly, boldness and disinhibition each accounted for significant variance in associations of low resting HR with particular types of ASB. Implications of these findings for our understanding of the nature and bases of the low HR–antisocial behavior relationship will be discussed.