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

2. 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

3. 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)

4. 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)

5. 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).

6. Psychopathic traits Children
What about longitudinal relationships?

7. 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)

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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%

11. 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

12. 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)

13. 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)

14. 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

15. 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

16. Results GM traits and conduct problems

17. Results GM traits and emotional problems

18. Results INS behavioural style and conduct problems

19. Results CU traits and conduct problems

20. Results CU traits and emotional problems

21. Results CU traits and peer problems

22. 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

23. Questions?

24. Funding
This research was supported by grants from the Croatian Science Foundation [HRZZ-IP ] and University of Osijek [IZIP ]

25. Thank you for your attention!