Elsevier

Biological Psychiatry

Volume 55, Issue 5, 1 March 2004, Pages 546-552
Biological Psychiatry

Original article
Testosterone, antisocial behavior, and social dominance in boys: pubertal development and biosocial interaction

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2003.10.010Get rights and content

Abstract

Background

Studies linking testosterone and antisocial behavior in humans have produced mixed results. Adolescence offers a promising period to study this relationship; circulating testosterone increases dramatically in boys during puberty, and antisocial behavior increases during the same period.

Methods

Our analyses were based on boys aged 9–15 years who were interviewed during the first three waves of the Great Smoky Mountains Study. Measures included interview assessment of DSM-IV conduct disorder (CD) symptoms and diagnosis, blood spot measurement of testosterone, Tanner staging of pubertal development, and assessment of leadership behaviors and peer deviance.

Results

The adolescent rise in CD was primarily attributable to an increase in nonphysically aggressive behaviors. Increasing levels of circulating testosterone and association with deviant peers contributed to these age trends. There was no evidence that physical aggression was related to high testosterone. Evidence of biosocial interactions was identified; testosterone was related to nonaggressive CD symptoms in boys with deviant peers and to leadership in boys with nondeviant peers.

Conclusions

The results are consistent with the hypothesis that testosterone relates to social dominance, with the assumption that behaviors associated with dominance differ according to social context.

Section snippets

Sample

Based in a predominantly rural area of the southern United States, the GSMS is a longitudinal study of psychiatric disorder in children and adolescents. The accelerated cohort (Schaie 1965), two-phase sampling design, and measures are described in detail elsewhere (Costello et al 1996). Briefly, a representative sample of 4500 9-, 11-, and 13-year-old boys and girls resident in western North Carolina were selected with a household equal probability design. In the screening phase, a parent

Developmental trends in antisocial behavior

The sample comprised boys aged 9–15 years with percentages at Tanner stages I–V of 14.2, 33.2, 24.6, 22.0, and 6.0 respectively. Conduct disorder diagnosis showed a significant linear age trend (odds ratio [OR] = 1.3, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.1, 1.5; p = .006), rising from 4% at age 9 to 10% at age 15. Figure 1 shows mean aggressive and nonaggressive CD symptom counts by age. These two subtypes of antisocial behavior showed different age trends: aggressive CD symptoms showed no evidence

Discussion

The GSMS offered a strong basis for studying the relationships among testosterone, aggressive and nonaggressive CD symptoms, and social dominance during puberty. The study provided a relatively large number of observations across an appropriate age range, with blood sample measurement of circulating testosterone, and clinical interview measures of CD symptoms and diagnosis; however, a number of limitations should be considered when evaluating the results. It is not inconceivable that the

Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by Medical Research Council program Grant G9901475 (RR, BM). Participant interviewing was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH-48085 (EJC). Hormone analyses were funded by the W.T. Grant Foundation (94–1489–98; CMW).

We thank Louise Arseneault and Andrew Pickles for helpful discussions during the preparation of the manuscript.

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