The Comorbidity of Psychopathy and Depression: Across Different Ethnic and Sex Groups

The aim of this research was to examine if comorbid relationships exist between psychopathy and depression in a community sample of different ethnic and sex groups. Based on some previous research, it was hypothesized that psychopathy and depression would be correlated and that secondary psychopathy would be the strongest predictor of depression regardless of different ethnic and sex belongings. The survey was carried out on the adult population in the region of Croatia populated by citizens of Croatian and Serbian minority ethnicity. The equalized convenience sample of 1100 participants, half of which were Croats and half of males. Pearson-product moment correlation coefficients were calculated as a measure of the strength and direction of linear relationships among primary and secondary and depression. In order to determine how well scores on depression could be predicted by primary and secondary psychopathy across different demographic groups, multiple regression analysis were used. It was found that both primary and secondary psychopathy were significantly correlated in a positive direction with depression in different ethnic and sex groups. However, secondary psychopathy was more correlated with depression across different ethnic and sex subsamples. The results of regression analysis revealed that secondary psychopathy was the strongest predictor of depression in all demographic subsamples. After age and school attainment were introduced into regression models, it was shown that a very small percentage of the variance is explained by the sociodemographic variables. The research suggested a significant role of secondary psychopathy in relation to a higher level of psychopathology.