Effects of the interpersonal environment on antisocial tendencies in youths: A longitudinal before-and-after survey conducted during COVID-19-related standing by at home

<p>The authors examined the effects of the interpersonal environment, including parents, friends, teachers, and neighbors, on longitudinal changes in the antisocial tendencies of youths, using before-and-after surveys conducted during the period of social restrictions against the COVID-19 pandemic. One thousand and ninety-eight grade students from grades four through nine were surveyed before and after the social restrictions in three waves. Their interpersonal environments were assessed by examining parenting, domestic violence, friendship, teacher’s leadership, and neighbors’ collective efficacy. Antisocial tendencies were measured by examining low self-control, callous-unemotional traits, moral disengagement, self-serving cognitive distortion, and normative beliefs about aggression. Latent profile analysis revealed four interpersonal environment profiles. Analysis of variance was used to compare longitudinal changes in antisocial tendencies among the four profiles. In class 2 (characterized by high parental control), the subjects’ self-control increased. Conversely, in classes 1 and 4 (characterized by adaptive environments), the subjects’ self-control decreased. In class 1, the score of callous unemotional traits increased. This was construed as indicating that the subjects’ opportunities to express empathy were decreased by the restrictions placed on their rich environments. Antisocial cognition indices indicated that the scores of selective moral disengagement, self-serving cognitive distortion, and normative beliefs about aggression decreased. This was construed as indicating that the opportunities these subjects had to learn cognitive biases were decreased by the restrictions placed on their social interactions.</p>