Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T09:16:06.991Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Assessing callous-unemotional traits: development of a brief, reliable measure in a large and diverse sample of preadolescent youth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 March 2019

Samuel W. Hawes Open the ORCID record for Samuel W. Hawes [Opens in a new window] ,
Rebecca Waller ,
Wesley K. Thompson ,
Luke W. Hyde ,
Amy L. Byrd ,
S. Alexandra Burt ,
Kelly L. Klump  and
Raul Gonzalez
Samuel W. Hawes*
Affiliation:
Center for Children and Families, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA Department of Psychology, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA
Rebecca Waller
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Wesley K. Thompson
Affiliation:
Division of Biostatistics, Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
Luke W. Hyde
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA Center for Human Growth and Development, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Amy L. Byrd
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
S. Alexandra Burt
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
Kelly L. Klump
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
Raul Gonzalez
Affiliation:
Center for Children and Families, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA Department of Psychology, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA
*
Author for correspondence: Samuel W. Hawes, E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

Callous-unemotional (CU) traits are critical to developmental, diagnostic, and clinical models of antisocial behaviors (AB). However, assessments of CU traits within large-scale longitudinal and neurobiologically focused investigations remain remarkably sparse. We sought to develop a brief measure of CU traits using items from widely administered instruments that could be linked to neuroimaging, genetic, and environmental data within already existing datasets and future studies.

Methods

Data came from a large and diverse sample (n = 4525) of youth (ages~9–11) taking part in the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. Moderated nonlinear factor analysis was used to assess measurement invariance across sex, race, and age. We explored whether CU traits were distinct from other indicators of AB, investigated unique links with theoretically-relevant outcomes, and replicated findings in an independent sample.

Results

The brief CU traits measure demonstrated strong psychometric properties and evidence of measurement invariance across sex, race, and age. On average, boys endorsed higher levels of CU traits than girls and CU traits were related to, yet distinguishable from other indicators of AB. The CU traits construct also exhibited expected associations with theoretically important outcomes. Study findings were also replicated across an independent sample of youth.

Conclusions

In a large, multi-site study, a brief measure of CU traits can be measured distinctly from other dimensions of AB. This measure provides the scientific community with a method to assess CU traits in the ABCD sample, as well as in other studies that may benefit from a brief assessment of CU.

Keywords

Antisocial behaviorscallous-unemotional traitsconduct disorder
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 50 , Issue 3 , February 2020 , pp. 456 - 464
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achenbach, TM and Edelbrock, C (1983) Manual for the Child Behavior Checklist and Revised Child Behavior Profile. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont.Google Scholar
Association, AP (2013) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edn.Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bauer, DJ (2017) A more general model for testing measurement invariance and differential item functioning. Psychological Methods 22, 507.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Benjamini, Y and Yekutieli, D (2001) The control of the false discovery rate in multiple testing under dependency. The Annals of Statistics 29, 1165–1188.Google Scholar
Blair, RJR (2013) The neurobiology of psychopathic traits in youths. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 14, 786.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Borsboom, D (2006) When does measurement invariance matter? Medical Care 44, S176–S181.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burt, SA and Klump, KL (2013) The Michigan state university twin registry (MSUTR): an update. Twin Research and Human Genetics 16, 344–350.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cardinale, EM and Marsh, AA (2017) The reliability and validity of the Inventory of Callous Unemotional Traits: a meta-analytic review. Assessment. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1177/1073191117747392.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Casey, B and Jones, RM (2010) Neurobiology of the adolescent brain and behavior: implications for substance use disorders. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 49, 1189–1201.Google ScholarPubMed
Choudhury, S, Blakemore, S-J and Charman, T (2006) Social cognitive development during adolescence. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 1, 165–174.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clark, LA and Watson, D (1995) Constructing validity: basic issues in objective scale development. Psychological Assessment 7, 309–319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooke, DJ and Michie, C (2001) Refining the construct of psychopathy: towards a hierarchical model. Psychological Assessment 13, 171–188.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Curran, PJ and Hussong, AM (2009) Integrative data analysis: the simultaneous analysis of multiple data sets. Psychological Methods 14, 81–100.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Curran, PJ, Mcginley, JS, Bauer, DJ, Hussong, AM, Burns, A, Chassin, L, Sher, K and Zucker, R (2014) A moderated nonlinear factor model for the development of commensurate measures in integrative data analysis. Multivariate Behavioral Research 49, 214–231.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dadds, MR, Fraser, J, Frost, A and Hawes, DJ (2005) Disentangling the underlying dimensions of psychopathy and conduct problems in childhood: a community study. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 73, 400–410.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
De Clercq, B, Rettew, D, Althoff, RR and De Bolle, M (2012) Childhood personality types: vulnerability and adaptation over time. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 53, 716–722.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dotterer, HL, Waller, R, Neumann, CS, Shaw, DS, Forbes, EE, Hariri, AR and Hyde, LW (2017) Examining the factor structure of the Self-Report of Psychopathy Short-Form across four young adult samples. Assessment 24, 1062–1079.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Flora, DB and Curran, PJ (2004) An empirical evaluation of alternative methods of estimation for confirmatory factor analysis with ordinal data. Psychological Methods 9, 466–491.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Frick, PJ (2012) Developmental pathways to conduct disorder: implications for future directions in research, assessment, and treatment. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology 41, 378–389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frick, PJ, Ray, JV, Thornton, LC and Kahn, RE (2014 a) Annual research review: a developmental psychopathology approach to understanding callous-unemotional traits in children and adolescents with serious conduct problems. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 55, 532–548.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Frick, PJ, Ray, JV, Thornton, LC and Kahn, RE (2014 b) Can callous-unemotional traits enhance the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of serious conduct problems in children and adolescents? A comprehensive review. Psychological Bulletin 140, 1.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garavan, H, Bartsch, H, Conway, K, Decastro, A, Goldstein, R, Heeringa, S, Jernigan, T, Potter, A, Thompson, W and Zahs, D (2018) Recruiting the ABCD sample: design considerations and procedures. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience 32, 16–22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goodman, R (1997) The strengths and difficulties questionnaire: a research note. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 38, 581–586.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goodman, A and Goodman, R (2009) Strengths and difficulties questionnaire as a dimensional measure of child mental health. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 48, 400–403.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hawes, SW, Byrd, AL, Kelley, SE, Gonzalez, R, Edens, JF and Pardini, DA (2018) Psychopathic features across development: assessing longitudinal invariance among caucasian and African American youths. Journal of Research in Personality 73, 180–188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
He, J-P, Burstein, M, Schmitz, A and Merikangas, KR (2013) The strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ): the factor structure and scale validation in US adolescents. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 41, 583–595.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heeringa, SG, West, BT and Berglund, PA (2017) Applied Survey Data Analysis. New York: Chapman and Hall/CRC.Google Scholar
Hu, L and Bentler, PM (1999) Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling 6, 1–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hussong, AM, Curran, PJ and Bauer, DJ (2013) Integrative data analysis in clinical psychology research. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology 9, 61–89.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jenkins, LN, Demaray, MK, Wren, NS, Secord, SM, Lyell, KM, Magers, AM, Setmeyer, AJ, Rodelo, C, Newcomb-Mcneal, E and Tennant, J (2014) A critical review of five commonly used social-emotional and behavioral screeners for elementary or secondary schools. Contemporary School Psychology 18, 241–254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kimonis, ER, Frick, PJ, Skeem, JL, Marsee, MA, Cruise, K, Muñoz, LC, Aucoin, KJ and Morris, AS (2008) Assessing callous-unemotional traits in adolescent offenders: validation of the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 31, 241–252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kouros, CD, Cummings, EM and Davies, PT (2010) Early trajectories of interparental conflict and externalizing problems as predictors of social competence in preadolescence. Development and Psychopathology 22, 527–537.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lahey, BB (2014) What we need to know about callous-unemotional traits: Comment on Frick, Ray, Thornton, and Kahn (2014).Google Scholar
Luna, B, Garver, KE, Urban, TA, Lazar, NA and Sweeney, JA (2004) Maturation of cognitive processes from late childhood to adulthood. Child Development 75, 1357–1372.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moffitt, TE (2018) Male antisocial behaviour in adolescence and beyond. Nature Human Behaviour 2, 177–186.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moffitt, TE, Caspi, A, Harrington, H and Milne, BJ (2002) Males on the life-course-persistent and adolescence-limited antisocial pathways: follow-up at age 26 years. Development and Psychopathology 14, 179–207.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Muthén, LK and Muthén, BO (1998–2012) Mplus User's Guide, 7th Edn.Los Angeles, CA: Muthén & Muthén.Google Scholar
Oakland, T, Douglas, S and Kane, H (2016) Top ten standardized tests used internationally with children and youth by school psychologists in 64 countries: a 24-year follow-up study. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment 34, 166–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raschle, NM, Menks, WM, Fehlbaum, LV, Steppan, M, Smaragdi, A, Gonzalez-Madruga, K, Rogers, J, Clanton, R, Kohls, G and Martinelli, A (2018) Callous-unemotional traits and brain structure: sex-specific effects in anterior insula of typically-developing youths. NeuroImage: Clinical 17, 856–864.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ray, JV, Frick, PJ, Thornton, LC, Steinberg, L and Cauffman, E (2016) Positive and negative item wording and its influence on the assessment of callous-unemotional traits. Psychological Assessment 28, 394.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rivenbark, JG, Odgers, CL, Caspi, A, Harrington, H, Hogan, S, Houts, RM, Poulton, R and Moffitt, TE (2018) The high societal costs of childhood conduct problems: evidence from administrative records up to age 38 in a longitudinal birth cohort. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 59, 703–710.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skeem, JL and Cooke, DJ (2010) Is criminal behavior a central component of psychopathy? Conceptual directions for resolving the debate. Psychological Assessment 22, 433–445.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Steiger, JH (1990) Structural model evaluation and modification: an interval estimation approach. Multivariate Behavioral Research 25, 173–180.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stone, LL, Janssens, JM, Vermulst, AA, Van Der Maten, M, Engels, RC and Otten, R (2015) The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: psychometric properties of the parent and teacher version in children aged 4–7. BMC Psychology 3, 4.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tsang, S, Piquero, AR and Cauffman, E (2014) An examination of the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL: YV) among male adolescent offenders: an item response theory analysis. Psychological Assessment 26, 1333.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Viding, E, Blair, RJR, Moffitt, TE and Plomin, R (2005) Evidence for substantial genetic risk for psychopathy in 7-year-olds. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 46, 592–597.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Volkow, ND, Koob, GF, Croyle, RT, Bianchi, DW, Gordon, JA, Koroshetz, WJ, Pérez-Stable, EJ, Riley, WT, Bloch, MH and Conway, K (2018) The conception of the ABCD study: from substance use to a broad NIH collaboration. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience 32, 4–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Waller, R and Hyde, LW (2018) Callous-unemotional behaviors in early childhood: the development of empathy and prosociality gone awry. Current Opinion in Psychology 20, 11–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Waller, R, Hyde, LW, Grabell, AS, Alves, ML and Olson, SL (2015) Differential associations of early callous-unemotional, oppositional, and ADHD behaviors: multiple domains within early-starting conduct problems? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 56, 657–666.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Waller, R, Shaw, DS and Hyde, LW (2017 a) Observed fearlessness and positive parenting interact to predict childhood callous-unemotional behaviors among low-income boys. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 58, 282–291.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Waller, R, Shaw, DS, Neiderhiser, JM, Ganiban, JM, Natsuaki, MN, Reiss, D, Trentacosta, CJ, Leve, LD and Hyde, LW (2017 b) Towards an understanding of the role of the environment in the development of early callous behavior. Journal of Personality 85, 90–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Willoughby, MT, Waschbusch, DA, Moore, GA and Propper, CB (2011) Using the ASEBA to screen for callous unemotional traits in early childhood: factor structure, temporal stability, and utility. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment 33, 19–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Willoughby, MT, Mills-Koonce, RW, Gottfredson, NC and Wagner, NJ (2014) Measuring callous unemotional behaviors in early childhood: factor structure and the prediction of stable aggression in middle childhood. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment 36, 30–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zalewski, M, Lengua, LJ, Wilson, AC, Trancik, A and Bazinet, A (2011) Emotion regulation profiles, temperament, and adjustment problems in preadolescents. Child Development 82, 951–966.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Supplementary material: File

Hawes et al. supplementary material

Hawes et al. supplementary material 1

Download Hawes et al. supplementary material(File)
File 2.2 KB