Psychopathic traits in young children: concurrent and longitudinal associations with behavior problems Silvija Ručević, Tijana Borovac, Sandra Vučković i Dino Krupić srucevic@ffos.hr

Psychopathic traits Adolescents Syndrome comprising a constellation of extreme interpersonal, affective and behavior/lifestyle traits that co-occur together (Andershed et al., 2002; Cooke & Michie, 2001) Behavioural dimension Impulsivity Need for stimulation Interpersonal dimension Grandiosity Deceitfulness Lying Manipulation Affective dimension Callous-Unemotional (CU) traits

Psychopathic traits Adolescents What do we know thus far? Concurrent and longitudinal relationships between separate psychopathic traits and a number of negative outcomes self-reported aggressive behavior self-reported violent and non-violent delinquency, self-reported risky-sexual behavior, official criminal behavior future offending treatment engagement… (Cauffman, Kimonis, Dmitrieva, & Monahan, 2009; Collins et al., 2017; Penney & Moretti, 2007; Poythress, Dembo, Wareham, & Greenbaum, 2006; Ručević, 2010)

Psychopathic traits Children Compared to adolescents, disagreement how psychopathic traits should be defined CU traits vs. syndrome (affective, interpersonal, and behavioural traits) CU traits differentiate a subset of young children with more severe behavioural problems (e.g., Frick and colleagues); a CU-based specifier for the diagnosis of CD added to DSM-5 (“with limited prosocial emotions-LPE”) Children and youths high on all three dimensions have more behaviour and social problems than youths low on all three dimensions or high on only one dimension (e.g., CU traits) (e.g., Andershed et al. 2008; Colins et al. 2012; Colins et al., 2014; Vincent et al., 2003)

Psychopathic traits Children What do we know thus far? Separate psychopathy dimensions have been concurrently associated with a number of negative outcomes and adjustment problems in young children teacher and parent-reported aggression, teacher and parent-reported AD/HD symptoms teacher and parent-reported conduct problems etc. (Colins et al., 2014; Ezpeleta, de la Osa, Granero, Penelo, & Domènech, 2013; Kimonis et al., 2006; Kimonis et al., 2016).

Psychopathic traits Children What about longitudinal relationships?

About this study… AIM using a multi-informant approach, examine whether psychopathic traits concurrently and prospectively predict behaviour problems HYPOTHESES Separate psychopathic traits will be both concurrently and longitudinally related to different behavioural and adjustment problems ECLAT-study (Problem behaviors in elementary school-aged children: The role of Executive funCtioning, individuL, familiAl, and geneTic factors)

Sample 175 randomly selected children (80 boys) all children were accompanied to the research site by their biological parent (135 mothers and 40 fathers) in order to achieve greater variability in psychopathy traits and problem behaviors, in the first wave of the ECLAT study children were recruited from both mainstream (n = 115) and high-risk (n = 60) kindergartens (deprived, high crime rate neighborhoods) kindergartens were chosen to gain representative samples from different socioeconomic classes, ethnicities (e.g., Roma), genders, and parental educational qualifications

Sample The most commonly reported highest levels of education for mothers were secondary school (38.9%) and university (37.6%), and for fathers were secondary school (43.3%) and university (31.3%) Approximately 3% of mothers and 4% of fathers had not attended high school Most parents were employed (78%) Approximately 5% of fathers are retired war veterans. Study measures did not differ on socio-economic status, ethnicity, age or parent education variables

Design and measures Informants T1 T4 Child (Mage = 5.16 years; SDage = 0.53) T4 Child (Mage = 8.21 years; SDage = 0.57) Parents (n = 135 mothers, n = 40 fathers) a) Psychopathic traits b) Problem behaviours Conduct problems Emotional problems Peer problems Kindergarten teachers (N = 27) School teachers (N = 33) T1 and T4: three years apart Retention rate between the two waves (T1 and T4) was 100%

Measures Problem behaviors Psychopathic traits Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; Goodman, 1997) Conduct problems Emotional problems Peer problems Psychopathic traits Child Problematic Traits Inventory (CPTI; Colins et al., 2014) Grandiose-Deceitful (GD) dimension Callous-Unemotional (CU) dimension Impulsivity-Need for Stimulation (INS) dimension

Measures parent and teacher scores were combined by taking the higher rating between raters (i.e., resolved score) bypassing potential underreporting (e.g., Frick, Cornell, Barry, Bodin, & Dane, 2003; Kimonis et al., 2016; Pardini et al., 2007)

Results Temporal stability of psychopathic traits Resolved/combined score: from r=.42 for CU traits to r=.63 for impulsive-need for stimulation behavioral style (INS) Parent score: from r=.48 for CU traits to r=.70 for impulsive-need for stimulation behavioral style (INS) Teacher score (kindergarten vs. school): from r=.38 for CU traits to r=.59 for impulsive-need for stimulation behavioral style (INS)

Results Concurrent and longitudinal relationships Correlational analysis Series of hierarchical regression analyses First step: child’s gender, IQ and T1 problem behaviors Second step: T1 psychopathic traits Third step: T3 psychopathic traits Criterion: T3 problem behaviors

Results T1. CPTI-CU T1.CPTI-GD T1. CPTI-INS T4. CPTI-CU T4. CPTI-GD T4. SDQ- CP EP T4. SDQ-PP - .46*** .32*** .29** .30** .24* .19* .21* .38*** .27** .48*** .35*** .20* .63*** .33*** .24** .44*** .34*** .64*** .47*** .39*** .50*** .74*** .45*** .51*** T4. SDQ-CP .41*** .43*** T4. SDQ-EP M 15.05 11.75 23.22 15.72 11.16 20.09 2.24 2.01 2.93 SD 4.36 3.38 5.40 4.32 4.02 5.02 1.34 1.12 1.11 Alpha .83 .80 .94 .84 .78 .96 .90 .81 .85

Results GM traits and conduct problems

Results GM traits and emotional problems

Results INS behavioural style and conduct problems

Results CU traits and conduct problems

Results CU traits and emotional problems

Results CU traits and peer problems

Discussion Taken together, these results suggest that CU traits concurrently differentiate a subset of young children with more severe behavioural and adjustment problems problems However, the predictive utility of parent and teacher-reported CU traits in young children is less clear It seems that other psychopathy features are more predictive of future problem behaviors

Questions?

Funding This research was supported by grants from the Croatian Science Foundation [HRZZ-IP-2016-06-3917] and University of Osijek [IZIP-2016-79]

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