Systems of Adversity, Psychological Distress, and Criminality

An attempted exercise in consilience, this study approaches adversity, psychological distress, and criminality from a systemic perspective, synthesizing literature from Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory, Life History Theory, and various markers of trauma and instability treated within the Adverse Childhood Experiences literature. Analyzing 2,761 women, a subset of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, a sequential canonical cascade model was used to model the hypothesized causal order of events, derived from these theories, culminating in psychological distress and criminality. More specifically, we construct, test, and report a cascade model that traces the progression of developmental influences, beginning with childhood environmental harshness and instability expressed within Bronfenbrenner's mesosystem and microsystem, and leading to later levels of life history speed, criminal behavior, and psychological distress. Thereafter, in addition to discussing alternative models that interchange the hypothesized causal order of psychological distress and criminality, we also review more straightforwardly genetic alternative hypotheses that potentially explain or qualify the developmental explanations of psychological distress and criminality herein reviewed and tested. Public Significance Statement Garnering data on sexual and reproductive behavior, vocational attainment, mental health and related variables by accessing a subset of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, this study theoretically considers and empirically tests competing models, judging their respective abilities to causally explain psychological distress and criminality. Contrary to primarily environmental explanations, such as those advanced within the Adverse Childhood Experiences literature, the present paper tests an evolutionary-ecological extension of Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory. This paper traces developmental influences stemming from childhood environmental harshness and instability within families and neighborhoods, which results in faster developmental speed, criminal behavior, and psychological distress, to the end of understanding psychological distress and criminality as it unfolds from innate dispositions expressed in causal order within environmental context.