Measurement of callous-unemotional traits in very young children: a psychometric and validity study from 2.5 to 5.0 years

Abstract

Callous-unemotional (CU) traits are associated with severe and stable antisocial behaviour in childhood and adolescence. In order to understand the earliest origins of CU traits we need first to know whether the construct and measures are valid in young children.This study evaluated the psychometric properties and validity of a CU traits measure at age 2.5 years. The participants (N = 775) were members of an epidemiological longitudinal study starting in pregnancy. Items from the Antisocial Process Screening Device and other problem behaviour scales were subjected to exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis.Structural equation modelling was used to test whether age 2.5 CU traits showed incremental validity in predicting aggression at age 5. The CU measure showed acceptable psychometric properties, factorial invariance by sex and good stability. Incremental prediction to later aggression was evident in girls, whereas boys showed strong continuity in aggression not found for girls.Keywords: Callous-unemotional (CU) traits, physical aggression, preschool, incremental validity, sex differences 3 Problems of oppositionality and aggression appearing in early childhood confer a substantially increased risk of later antisocial behaviour disorders and a wide range of psychiatric disorders including depression, anxiety and substance misuse (Odgers et al., 2008). While these early onset 'life course persistent' conduct problems share poor long term outcomes, it is likely that there is heterogeneity of risk factors and underlying processes (Hill, 2002). There is much current interest in a possible subgroup of conduct disordered children who show a lack of concern for the feelings of others and lack of guilt or remorse (Frick, 2009). In adults these traits are considered part of the affective dimension of psychopathy, and when applied to children they have been labelled as 'callous-unemotional traits' (CU traits). There is some evidence that there may be distinct developmental processes contributing to the development of conduct problems with and without CU traits. For example, conduct problems in children with CU traits have been found to be more highly heritable (Viding, Jones, Frick, Moffit & Plomin, 2008), less influenced by negative parenting practices (Pasalich, Dadds, Hawes & Brennan, 2012) and less responsive to typical conduct problem interventions (Hawes, Price & Dadds, 2014). Critically, CU traits in childhood and adolescence have been shown to be associated with more severe and enduring antisocial behaviour than conduct problems alone (Frick, Ray, Thornton & Kahn, 2014) supporting the utility of the application of the CU traits construct to childhood.The majority of CU traits research has focused on samples aged 5-18 years, however, there is a small increasing literature examining whether CU traits can be reliably and validly measured in the pre-school period. Two domains of developmental research suggest that this may be so. First, observational studies have identified that empathy-related behavio...

Maternal sensitivity to distress, attachment and the development of callous‐unemotional traits in young children

“…CU traits were assessed by mother‐report at 2.5, 2.5, and 5.0 years using a combination of the Antisocial Processes Screening Device (Frick & Hare, ) and items from the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach & Rescorla, ), the Brief Infant Toddler Assessment (BITSEA; Briggs‐Gowan, Carter, Irwin, Wachtel, & Cicchetti, ) and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; Goodman, ). We have previously created CU traits latent factor scores at age 2.5 and 5.0 years (Wright, Sharp, Pickles, & Hill, ) by subjecting items to exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses in MPlus (Muthén & Muthén, ). For this study, we applied the same process to the age 3.5 year items (see Appendix ).…”

“…CU traits were assessed by mother-report at 2.5, 2.5, and 5.0 years using a combination of the Antisocial Processes Screening Device (Frick & Hare, 2001) Goodman, 1997). We have previously created CU traits latent factor scores at age 2.5 and 5.0 years (Wright, Sharp, Pickles, & Hill, 2016) by subjecting items to exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses in MPlus (Muth en & Muth en, 2012). For this study, we applied the same process to the age 3.5 year items (see Appendix S1).…”