Psychopathic personality traits in 5 year old twins: the importance of genetic and shared environmental influences

Abstract

There is limited research on the genetic and environmental bases of psychopathic personality traits in children. In this study, psychopathic personality traits were assessed in a total of 1189 5-year-old boys and girls drawn from the Preschool Twin Study in Sweden. Psychopathic personality traits were assessed with the Child Problematic Traits Inventory, a teacher-report measure of psychopathic personality traits in children ranging from 3 to 12 years old. Univariate results showed that genetic influences accounted for 57, 25, and 74 % of the variance in the grandiose–deceitful, callous–unemotional, and impulsive–need for stimulation dimensions, while the shared environment accounted for 17, 48 and 9 % (n.s.) in grandiose–deceitful and callous–unemotional, impulsive–need for stimulation dimensions, respectively. No sex differences were found in the genetic and environmental variance components. The non-shared environment accounted for the remaining 26, 27 and 17 % of the variance, respectively. The three dimensions of psychopathic personality were moderately correlated (0.54–0.66) and these correlations were primarily mediated by genetic and shared environmental factors. In contrast to research conducted with adolescent and adult twins, we found that both genetic and shared environmental factors influenced psychopathic personality traits in early childhood. These findings indicate that etiological models of psychopathic personality traits would benefit by taking developmental stages and processes into consideration.

A longitudinal twin study of callous-unemotional traits during childhood.

“…Indeed, recent reports have shown that CU traits can be reliably assessed during preschool (Kimonis et al, 2016) and are heritable by age 5 (Tuvblad, Fanti, Andershed, Colins & Larsson, 2016). However, our results also suggest that new, distinct genetic contributions emerge later during childhood.…”

The genetic underpinnings of callous-unemotional traits: A systematic research review

“…The youngest of these samples (Flom & Saudino, 2017a;Flom & Saudino, 2017b) used data from the parent-report Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL;Achenback & Rescorla, 2001) in N = 628 twins aged 2-3 years and estimated the heritability of CU traits at age 2 and 3 at 72% and 65%, respectively. Conversely, in a slightly older sample (age 5; Tuvblad, Fanti, Andershed, Colins, & Larsson, 2017), the teacher-report Child Problematic Traits Inventory (CPTI; Colins et al, 2014) in N = 1,189 twins generated the lowest reported estimate of heritability: 25%. The variation in heritability estimates for young children could be due to the different measures and reporters used, and these issues may be compounded by longitudinal non-invariance.…”

“…These studies report a greater influence of genetic factors on CU traits in males as compared to females. However, others have failed to replicate these findings (Larsson et al, 2006;Ficks et al, 2014;Tuvblad et al, 2017), suggesting no consistent indication of quantitative sex effects. Only two studies have formally tested for qualitative sex effects (different sets of genes influencing CU in males vs. females), and neither found evidence for such differences (Larsson, Andershed, & Lichtenstein, 2006;Ficks, Dong, & Waldman, 2014).…”

Conduct disorders and psychopathy in children and adolescents: aetiology, clinical presentation and treatment strategies of callous-unemotional traits

“…Tuvblad and colleagues’ study [ 70 ] on genetic and environmental determinants of the psychopathic personality in a community sample of 5-year-old twins indicated that both genetic and shared environmental influences are of importance for psychopathy personality traits in childhood. Regarding the CU dimension, they found a moderate (25%) genetic influence and a higher (48%) shared environmental influence.…”