According to research published in the January issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, the level of cortisol in the blood of a youngster may account for his or her career of antisocial behaviour. Children who destroy property, are cruel to animals or cause trouble at school by fighting often demonstrate a faulty biological response to stress factors.
Studies have indicated that levels of the stress hormone cortisol are abnormally low in boys who pursue progressively aggressive behaviour patterns. Teenagers who show heart rates and brain wave patterns indicative of a low arousal to environmental challenges are considered to be more likely than others to commit felonies in later life.
In a group of 38 boys aged seven to 12 years who carried a diagnosis of disordered conduct - characterised by stealing, fighting and sexual aggression - tests of saliva carried out twice during a four-year period indicated that the lowest levels of cortisol were in those who started their social misbehaviour at an earlier age, on the evidence of parents, teachers and school classmates. Individuals with aggressive and antisocial personality are often found to demonstrate sluggishness in their nervous responses, and they apparently feel the need to take extreme measures to achieve a gratifying stimulation to events, and fail to experience the normal inhibitions which regulate social living.
Possibly the measurement of body cortisol levels might help us to identify which among troublesome individuals are merely passing through an unfortunate phase and which will possess an aggressive tendency which will persist and possibly worsen.