Assessing the Stability of Psychopathic Traits: Adolescent Outcomes in a Six-Year Follow-Up

Abstract

Previous research has shown the relevance of psychopathic traits as predictors of severe and persistent antisocial behavior. Given that personality traits refer to developmental constructs, the main purposes of this study were to analyze the stability of psychopathic traits from childhood to adolescence, and to examine differential outcomes derived from distinctive pathways of stability and change. Data was collected in a Spanish sample of 138 children aged 6-11 at the onset of the study (T1), and 12-17 in the subsequent follow-up conducted 6 years later (T2). The stability of psychopathic traits was assessed in terms of differential continuity (rank-order), absolute stability (mean-level) and individual-level change (Reliable Change Index). Results confirmed that psychopathic traits remained moderately to highly stable from childhood to adolescence (p < .001). There were, however, some differences depending on the informant (parents vs. teachers) and the particular assessment method used (rank order vs. mean-level and RCI). A stable high and an increasing developmental pattern of psychopathic traits were related with severe adolescent behavioral and psychosocial problems (ŋ² = .10-.36). These results support the usefulness of youth psychopathic personality as a developmental construct, and highlight its relevance as a predictor of long-lasting maladjustment, with relevant implications in terms of prevention and treatment.

Behavioral Improvements but Limited Change in Callous-Unemotional Traits in Adolescents Treated for Conduct Problems

“…These results suggest that for most individuals, CU traits are relatively stable in adolescence across an 18-month period, even in the context of active treatment. This supports previous longitudinal studies on the stability of CU traits in adolescents (van Baardewijk et al, 2011;López-Romero et al, 2014;Muñoz and Frick, 2007), and is in line with the results from treatment studies of the MST program (Butler, 2011;Fonagy et al, 2018). These findings are at odds with the statistically significant reductions observed when applying more traditional group-based change statistics (Lui et al, 2019;Manders et al, 2013;Salekin et al, 2012).…”

Callous-Unemotional Traits Do Not Predict Functional Family Therapy Outcomes for Adolescents With Behavior Problems

“…In addition, one should be aware that most research on the malleability of CU in adolescents, including our own, have studied interventions that were not necessarily directly targeting CU. Given that CU traits have been shown to be relatively stable during adolescence ( López-Romero et al, 2014 ), the possibility of change during treatments not specifically targeting these traits might be limited. With this in mind, the results from this study suggests that at least some elements of the FFT program might be relevant when designing interventions aimed at reducing CU traits.…”

Developmental pathways of childhood dark traits.

“…In addition, these studies generally focused on development from 8 years onward, presumably because many of the dark side strategies are not observable before that age (Slaughter, 2011; Thomaes et al, 2009). An inspection of this field learns that empirical evidence is scarce and mainly focused on rank-order stability of Psychopathy (Barry, Barry, Deming, & Lochman, 2008; Frick, Kimonis, Dandreaux, & Farell, 2003; Lynam et al, 2009), whereas almost no longitudinal studies addressed mean-level development of dark traits in youth (but see López-Romero, Romero, & Villar, 2014; Lynam et al, 2009). These studies have suggested a relative strong mean-level stability of prototypical childhood psychopathic features, although for Narcissism in particular, a normative declining trend has been suggested in one study (Foster, Campbell, & Twenge, 2003).…”