Impulsivity and Psychopathy in Adolescent Smokers and Nonsmokers

2007 Summer Research Internship from Arts and Sciences Department2007 Spring Social and Behavioral Science Research Award2007 Autumn Social and Behavioral Science Research AwardLittle research has explored the relationship between characteristics of psychopathy and assessments of impulsive behavior using laboratory behavioral measures. The current study examined impulsive decision-making (delay discounting, DD) and disinhibition in relation to ratings of psychopathy in a sample of adolescent smokers (n = 30) and nonsmokers (n = 15). Smokers and nonsmokers did not differ significantly in ratings of psychopathy or on the measure of disinhibition. However, smokers and nonsmokers did differ significantly on the measure of DD, with smokers discounting more impulsively than the nonsmokers. For a second set of analyses, smokers were subdivided into high and low psychopathy groups (n = 15 each) based on a median split. These groups were compared against each other and the nonsmokers. The three groups did not differ on the measure of disinhibition. For the measure of DD, the low psychopathy smokers and nonsmokers still differed as described above for smokers and nonsmokers; however, the high psychopathy smokers did not differ from the nonsmokers. Also, there was a negative correlation between the measures of DD and psychopathy, indicating that participants with higher psychopathy ratings on average discounted less (i.e., performed less impulsively) than participants with lower ratings. These findings indicate that being high in characteristics of psychopathy (e.g., grandiosity or callousness) reduces, or offsets, the relationship between DD and smoking status among adolescents. These findings may shed light on specific behavioral characteristics (i.e., psychopathy) that influence the relationship between delay discounting and cigarette smoking status.Research Institute at Nationwide Children's HospitalNo embarg