A psychometric and validity study of callous-unemotional traits in 2.5 year old children

Dimensions of Warm Parenting Attributions Differentiate Conduct Problem Subtypes in Young Children

Understanding the developmental psychopathology of child conduct problems (CP) has been advanced by differentiating subtypes based on levels of internalizing problems (INT) and/or callous-unemotional (CU) traits (i.e., low empathy/guilt, poor motivation, shallow/deficient affect). The current study sought to elucidate prior inconsistencies in the role of warm/positive and harsh/negative parenting subcomponents in CP by differentiating subtypes on the basis of INT and CU traits. Parents of 135 young children (M age = 4.21 years, SD = 1.29) referred to specialty clinics for the treatment of CP completed pre-treatment measures of parenting and rated their child's levels of CP, INT, and CU traits. Results of planned comparisons revealed that mothers of children classified as secondary CU variants (high CU/ high INT) reported fewer overall warm attributions toward their child, compared with CP-only (low CU) children. They also reported a more negative dyadic relationship characterized by feelings of anger/hostility, active avoidance and/or a desire to do harm to their child relative to primary CU variants (high CU/ low INT). Mothers of primary CU variants attributed fewer good and altruistic intentions towards others in their child, relative to CP-only children. Subtypes were undifferentiated on observed positive and negative parenting behaviors, indicative of a disconnect between parenting behaviors and cognitions for mothers of children high on CU traits. Findings are discussed in relation to their theoretical and practice implications, and in guiding future research.

Callous and Unemotional Traits as Precursors to the Development of Female Psychopathy

OBJECTIVE

Conduct a systematic review concerning the literature that reflects whether the callous and unemotional traits present in childhood and/or adolescence are precursors in the development of female psychopathy in adulthood.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A systematic review involved consulting three databases-EBSCO, the Web of Science, and PubMed-for peer-reviewed and quantitative studies within the period 2000-2023. Nine articles with quality of three and above were included.

RESULTS

The presence of callous and unemotional traits designates a group of youth that show characteristics associated with psychopathy, specifically when predicting a more severe and chronic pattern of antisocial behaviour. Children with high rates of callous and unemotional traits, who show symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in combination with severe conduct problems, are most likely to show features associated with psychopathy. The multidimensional psychopathy construct is considered a better predictor of future and stable antisocial behaviour than the callous and unemotional traits alone model.

CONCLUSIONS

According to the studies selected, the callous and unemotional traits in childhood seem to be precursors of female psychopathy in adulthood, but only because of the way they seem to enhance conduct problems, disruptive behaviour disorders, and, as a possible outcome, delinquency and antisocial traits, which may be precursors of future psychopathy.

Facial reactions to emotional films in young children with conduct problems and varying levels of callous-unemotional traits

BACKGROUND

Elevated levels of callous-unemotional (CU) traits have proven useful for identifying a distinct subgroup of children whose conduct problems (CP) are early emerging, severe, persistent, and underpinned by aberrant emotional processing. The early childhood emotional experiences and expressions of CP subtypes are poorly understood, despite their importance to understanding the problematic attachments and atypical social affiliation experienced by children with elevated CU traits. The current study aimed to test for differences in facial emotional reactions to mood-inducing film clips in children with CP and varying levels of CU traits.

METHOD

We compared facial emotional reactions during a developmentally appropriate mood induction task in a mixed-sex sample of clinic-referred preschool children (Mage  = 3.64 years, SD = 0.63, 66.9% male) classified as CP with elevated levels of CU traits (CP + CU; n = 25) versus low CU traits (CP-only; n = 47), and typically developing children (TD; n = 28).

RESULTS

Relative to TD children, children with clinical CP showed less congruent and more incongruent facial emotional expressions to sad and happy film clips, controlling for child sex, age, and ethnicity.

CONCLUSIONS

Consistent with older samples, young children with CP show atypical facial emotional expressions in response to positive and negative emotional stimuli. Findings have implications for developmental models of childhood antisocial behavior and can inform the development of targeted interventions.

Animal Abuse as an Indicator of Domestic Violence: One Health, One Welfare Approach

For years now, the importance of animal cruelty has been gaining recognition in the industrialized cities of the West. Animal cruelty encompasses any act that causes a non-human animal unnecessary pain or suffering, including negligence, abandonment, abuse, torture, bestiality, and even theriocide. This represents a red flag for society as a whole because people who commit such acts can escalate violence and direct it to other individuals. Animal cruelty and interpersonal violence—as well as other socially undesirable conduct such as bullying, antisocial personality disorder, rape, and serial murder—are closely related, so timely diagnoses of either one can help prevent acts of aggression. It is necessary, therefore, to analyze and try to understand whether there are early indicators that may help identify potentially violent individuals. It is well known that kids from homes with actual violence in their homes show a high tendency to reproduce such behaviors with both animals and other people. In conclusion, much research and rethinking of the importance of the veterinarian in detecting animal abuse and cruelty is needed to help detect and prevent cases of interpersonal violence that may arise over time.

Psychopathy

Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by a constellation of affective, interpersonal, lifestyle and antisocial features whose antecedents can be identified in a subgroup of young people showing severe antisocial behaviour. The prevalence of psychopathy in the general population is thought to be ~1%, but is up to 25% in prisoners. The aetiology of psychopathy is complex, with contributions of both genetic and environmental risk factors, and gene-environment interactions and correlations. Psychopathy is characterized by structural and functional brain abnormalities in cortical (such as the prefrontal and insular cortices) and subcortical (for example, the amygdala and striatum) regions leading to neurocognitive disruption in emotional responsiveness, reinforcement-based decision-making and attention. Although no effective treatment exists for adults with psychopathy, preliminary intervention studies targeting key neurocognitive disturbances have shown promising results. Given that psychopathy is often comorbid with other psychiatric disorders and increases the risk of physical health problems, educational and employment failure, accidents and criminality, the identification of children and young people at risk for this personality disorder and preventative work are important. Indeed, interventions that target the antecedents of psychopathic features in children and adolescents have been found to be effective.