Oral Language Skills and Related Risk Factors for Antisocial Behaviour in Youth Offenders

Evidence implicates poor verbal ability as a risk factor for antisocial behaviour, but less is known about how specific oral language skills are associated with antisocial behaviour, or confer risk in conjunction with other risk factors. The aim of the current research was to inform an understanding of the complexity of associations between oral language skills and related risk factors for antisocial behaviour in youth offenders. One hundred and thirty (81 youth offenders; 49 non-offenders) adolescent (age M = 16.32) males of relatively low SES participated in the research. Participants completed a range of measures during individual data collection sessions with the researcher. A systematic review revealed that youth offenders have relatively poor oral language skills, but that ongoing research into the biopsychosocial factors that influence the association between oral language deficits and youth offending is a high priority. Over three empirical studies associations between unique dimensions of oral language skills and nonverbal ability (NVA), callous-unemotional (CU) traits, perspective taking skills and/or antisocial behaviour were investigated at a fine-grained level, predominantly using a dimensional approach. Findings revealed that discrete oral language skills were differentially associated with participation in and patterns of antisocial behaviour dependent on associations with NVA and variants of CU traits. Further, primary and secondary variants of CU traits were associated with different patterns of oral language and perspective taking skill which, in some cases, was further associated with different patterns of antisocial behaviour. Current findings have the potential to inform theoretical models of antisocial behaviour and intervention strategies directed towards antisocial children and adolescents