Psychopathic personality traits and somatization: Sex differences and the mediating role of negative emotionality

Although a number of investigations have provided evidence for an associati on between antisocial personality disorder and somatization disorder, the v ariables underlying this association remain unknown. We examined the relati ons among measures of primary and secondary psychopathy, somatization, and negative emotionality (NE) in 150 undergraduates. Somatization was positive ly and significantly correlated with measures of secondary, but not primary , psychopathy, and the relations between secondary psychopathy indices and somatization tended to be significantly stronger in females than in males S ome support was found for the hypothesis that the association between secon dary psychopathy and somatization is mediated by NE, but not for the hypoth esis that low levels of behavioral inhibition lead to somatization. Althoug h the present findings are consistent with the possibility that somatizatio n is a sex-differentiated manifestation of secondary psychopathic traits, r eplication of these findings in clinical samples will be necessary.