Childhood psychopathic personality and callous-unemotional traits in the prediction of conduct problems

Abstract

This study analyzed data from a prospective longitudinal study of Swedish preschoolers to examine whether psychopathic traits and concurrent conduct problems predict future conduct problems (CP) across 1- and 2-year follow-ups into early childhood. We tested the predictive ability of psychopathic traits while controlling for concurrent CP, and also by combining psychopathic traits with concurrent CP. A community sample of 1,867 preschoolers (47% girls) ages 3 to 5 years at baseline was recruited from a Swedish medium-sized municipality. Results from multivariate regression analyses showed that psychopathic traits alone (without co-occurring CP) did not consistently predict continuing childhood CP, but did so, among both boys and girls, in combination with concurrent conduct problems. It is important to note that, the combination of concurrent CP and the entire psychopathic personality, that is, a 3-dimensional psychopathic construct, was a stronger predictor of continuing childhood CP than the combination of concurrent CP and Callous-Unemotional (CU) traits among boys but not among girls. (PsycINFO Database Record