The Development of Callous-Unemotional Traits and Antisocial Behavior in Children: Are There Shared and/or Unique Predictors?

Abstract

Callous and unemotional (CU) traits have been linked to severe antisocial behavior in youth, but studies examining the etiology of CU traits are lacking. Based on prior research, it was hypothesized that childhood anxiety and parenting practices would interact to predict changes in CU traits over time. Hypotheses were tested using a sample of 120 moderate to highly aggressive fifth graders followed over a 1-year period. Although CU traits displayed moderate temporal stability and predicted increases in antisocial behavior, evidence suggested that these features were not immutable. Children exposed to lower levels of physical punishment showed decreases in CU traits over time, whereas higher levels of child-reported parental warmth and involvement predicted decreases in both CU traits and antisocial behavior over time. Lower levels of anxiety were uniquely related to increased CU traits for children who described their primary caregiver as exhibiting low warmth and involvement.

The evolutionary roots of psychopathy

“…Although there is a lack of research focused on this topic, it seems that subjects with psychopathic traits present an immature soothing system, reflected into the affective and interpersonal features of the disorder. Moreover, an hostile psychosocial background, that hampers the development of the soothing system (Gilbert, 2005(Gilbert, , 2010, is probably crucial in the etiology and maintenance of psychopathy (Farrington et al, 2010;Gao et al, 2010;Pardini et al, 2007;Salekin & Lochman, 2008;Saltaris, 2002). From an evolutionary perspective, highly hostile developmental environments (that, from early ages, frequently and intensely activate the SRS, sending information about extrinsic morbidity-mortality and environmental volatility) usually tend to shift life history strategies toward the fast end of the life history continuum -"live fast, die young".…”

“…Moreover, some authors suggest that certain environmental risk factors, above all psychosocial ones, play a significant role in the etiology and maintenance of psychopathy (Farrington, Ullrich, Salekin, 2010;Gao et al, 2010;Pardini, Lochman, & Powel, 2007;Salekin & Lochman, 2008;Saltaris, 2002). In an evolutionary perspective, insecure attachment styles and extremely severe rearing environments commonly lead to the development of "fast" life strategies, focused on mating, with a little investment in interpersonal relationships and in parenting (Del Giudice, in press; Del Giudice & Ellis, in press; Del Giudice et al, 2011Ellis et al, 2013;Glenn et al, 2011).…”

Sensitivity to parenting in adolescents with callous/unemotional traits: Observational and experimental findings.

“…For example, CU traits have been reliably associated with caregiving experiences (Pardini, Lochman, & Powell, 2007;Waller et al, 2012); furthermore, not all studies find that the associations between parenting and child behavioral adjustment are moderated by CU, e.g. (Waller et al, 2014), or that CU traits moderate treatment response to intervention (Kolko & Pardini, 2010).…”

The Reciprocal Influence of Callous-Unemotional Traits, Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Parenting Practices in Preschoolers

“…Research in high-risk samples of older children supports a bidirectional relationship between poor parental monitoring and ODD, according to which negative parenting fuels increased defiance in children, which in turn provokes further negative parenting practices [26].…”