Behaviour/emotional problems in male juvenile delinquents and controls in Russia: the role of personality traits

Recent studies based on the psychobiological theory of personality by Cloninger postulate a relationship between certain personality traits and various psychopathological manifestations. To test this theory, we administered the Temperament and Character Inventory and the Youth Self-Report to 188 male delinquents from a juvenile correction centre in Northern Russia, and to 111 age-matched male controls recruited from among schoolchildren. As assumed by previous studies, psychological symptoms were primarily positively correlated with harm avoidance and negatively correlated with self-directedness. At the same time, the higher levels of aggressive and delinquent behaviour were positively correlated with novelty-seeking and negatively correlated with co-operativeness. The possible mechanisms underlying these findings are discussed.