Refining the parent-reported Inventory of Callous–Unemotional Traits in boys with conduct problems.

Abstract

Callous-unemotional (CU) traits have been shown to delineate a unique subgroup of children with severe and persistent conduct problems that seem to have unique etiological origins. However, commonly used measures of CU traits in children may not adequately capture the full range of these characteristics in a developmentally appropriate manner. As a result, the 24-item Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU; self-, parent-, and teacher-report versions; Frick, 2004) was recently developed as a more extensive assessment of CU traits. However, studies to date have focused almost exclusively on the self-report version ICU in adolescents and have identified problems with the factor structure of the measure. The current study is the 1st to examine the factor structure of the parent-report version ICU in a sample of 250 boys (ages 6-12 years) exhibiting significant conduct problems. Initial analyses indicated that factor models reported for the parent-report version of the ICU demonstrated a relatively poor fit to the data. Item response theory techniques were used to develop a more psychometrically sound and efficient short form of the ICU consisting of 2 factors (i.e., Callous and Uncaring) using 12 of the original 24 items. The revised version scores demonstrated high internal consistency, good discrimination across the continuum of the CU construct, and adequate short-term test-retest reliability. The revised measure total score also exhibited evidence of convergent and discriminant validity, although the subscales exhibited some differential correlations with theoretically meaningful constructs. Avenues for future measure refinement and use with children are discussed.

Toward an Understanding of the Role of the Environment in the Development of Early Callous Behavior

“…Interestingly, results from the EFA and CFA suggested that two traditional ‘unemotional’ items associated with the CU behavior construct (‘does not show affection’; ‘is unresponsive to affection’) did not load onto our CU behavior factor (Hyde, Shaw, Gardner, et al, 2013). This result is consistent with other psychometric work that we and others have done recently, suggesting that ‘unemotional’ as indexed in many CU behavior measures may not contribute psychometrically to the overarching construct (e.g., Hawes et al, 2014; Waller, Wright, et al, 2014). As such, we termed the factor ‘deceitful-callous behavior’ to index the shift away from ‘unemotional’, to acknowledge the presence of items indexing deceitful and sneaky behavior, and to emphasize that we were measuring risk behaviors rather than ‘traits’ (Hyde, Shaw, Gardner, et al, 2013).…”

Factor Structure and Construct Validity of the Parent-Reported Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits Among High-Risk 9-Year-Olds

“…First, the results provide justification for practitioners to assess CU behavior using a sum of 22 ICU items, as implied by our 3FBF, or using the revised 12-item set proposed by Hawes and colleagues (2014) which both added unique variance in relation to the prediction of future behavior problems across informants and settings. Use of these ICU summed scores may help in the diagnosis of the DSM-5 ‘limited prosocial emotions’ specifier.…”

“…We found that the fixed model showed significantly better fit, suggesting that loadings were similar across males and females. Finally, we examined a revised 2F model with 12 ICU items (Hawes et al, 2014). This newly-proposed two-factor solution showed good model fit for both primary caregiver (see Table 3) and alternative caregiver reports ( χ 2 (53) = 126.98, p < .001; CFI = .98; RMSEA = .05; details available on request).…”

“…Incorporating assessment of temperamental dimensions, such as negative emotionality or prosociality may help to differentiate between antisocial subgroups of youth with and without CU behavior (Lahey, 2014). At the same time, one item of the original unemotional scale (‘does not show emotions’) was retained in the shortened ICU, albeit as part of the callous factor (Hawes et al, 2014). Thus, it appears that continued consideration of the emotional displays of children (or lack thereof) is warranted to provide the affective context for any callous or uncaring behavior (see Rowe, 2014).…”

The DSM-5 Limited Prosocial Emotions subtype of Conduct Disorder in incarcerated male and female juvenile delinquents

“…Some very recent studies have already began such endeavors (e.g., Colins & Vermeiren, 2013;Hawes et al, 2014;Kimonis et al, 2014;Pardini et al, 2012), but much more research is needed to better understand how to best capture these traits for both clinical and research purposes. More research is also needed into girls with CU traits because most studies focus just on boys, and it is not clear whether CU traits or psychopathy ratings tap the same latent constructs in boys and girls (Kunimatsu, Marsee, Lau, & Fassnacht, 2012;Moffitt et al, 2008).…”