Callous Unemotional Traits in Children 1

What are callous-emotional traits?

conceptualised as a downward extension of psychopathy in children

lack of emotion asc w/ psychopathy

What are the 4 core features of CU traits?

lack of remorse and guilt

callous lack of empathy

shallow or blunted affect (unemotionality)

unconcerned about performance at school

Why do researchers look at these CU traits and apply it to children?

similar presentation and correlates to adult psychopathy - inc low emotionality - shows that this dimension of psyp can be applied to cdr and sugg precursor to adult psychopathy

has been reliably measured in cdr as young as 2yo predicts future bv problems

CU traits predicts aggression and rule breaking at 9yo

What did Hyde et al., 2013 find?

CU traits in 2yo cdr predicted bv problems at age 3 and 4

this is imp bc we know empathy and helping bv is evident by 2nd year of life

What are some issues w/ using the term psychopathy or CU traits of cdr?

stigmatisation, there may be social consqs such as social exclusion, or cdr being treated as a lost cause

Why do CU traits matter?

they underlie a certain severe form of antisocial bv which is more serious and persistent across dv

When did early conceptualisations of CU rates start?

started with researchers doing treatments studies w/ cdr w/ ASB problems

What do children with ASB and CU traits form?

an especially severe and impaired subgroup

Who stands out among cdr who show ASB?

those with CU traits stand out bc they are harder to treat, more persistent in their bv and show distinct dvlpmental patterns

What did Longman et al., find that CU traits predict beyond? (2015)

CU traits predict beyond what conduct problems alone can explain

What do CU cdr typically show?

poorer long term outcomes sa higher risk of crim bv into adolescence, difficulties in rs, mental health challenges and poorer resp to standard interventions

What did Rowe et al., (2010) find?

CU traits in childhood are asc w/ cont ASB into adulthood, and increased likelihood of adult antisocial personality fts

What do cdr with CU traits show in their brain?

that cdr with CU traits show dfrs in brain functioning, emotional processing sa reduced fear response, decision making and physiological reps

indicates CU traits are not simply bad bv but relate to unique bio and psych factors

What has resulted from extensive research in this area?

DSM-5 included CU traits as a specifier to conduct disorder - called it limited prosocial emotion

What do cdr who meet criteria for LPE specifier have?

had higher lvls of physical and relational aggression, bullying, cruelty and comorbidity such as ODD and ADD

What does LPE have?

clinical utility - helps to identify particularly high risk grp of cdr w/ bv problems 

What is a core deficit of CU traits?

emotional processing - lower emotional reactivity and lack of emotional recognition

Kimonis et al (2007, 2008) found that they had slower speed and poorer accuracy of response to distressing pictures/words

What did De Wied et al. (2012) find?

Electromyograph of facial muscles that signal smiling, disdain, contempt or smugness

measured muscle activity and found sig increase in high CU indvs when watching film clips of social interactions expressing anger

indicated high CU were amused rather than angered

What did Dadds et al., (2016) find?

showed emotional scenes from lion king and measured observed affect and self regulatory bvs

cdr tended to disengage, less self soothing bv during fear or sadness scenes

dfrs bt grps in expression of joy in high CU grp

What did Northam et al (2022) do?

replicated Dadds study and measured heart rate, finding replicated but high CU had lower hr in emtional scenes

What is there a robust finding in?

adult literature on psychopathy, psyp asc with impaired emotion recognition ,esp can’t recognise fear and also robust finding child literature

What did Dadds et al (2006, 2008) find?

when instructed to look at eyes, CU cdr were no longer impaired and recognised fear 

finding sugg some kind of attentional deficits

What are the biological responses of emotion processing in CU traits?

lower baseline hr - takes longer to reach that lvl of physical arousal - cdr high in CU traits have lower hr change when watching emotionally evocative film

lower skin conductance lvls - sweat less - good index of anxiety

less startle eyeblink reflex - automatic blinking of eyelids in resp to sudden stimu

What was found out about neural correlates in CU children?

less activity in amygdala which is inv in processing emotional info

What is another core deficit of CU traits?

reinforcement learning - process where one learns through reward and punishment

high cu traits makes it hard to learn from punishment and reward 

What do prisoners with psyp are more likely to do?

reoffends bc they are not sensitive to the punishments they receive, do not learn from incarceration

How was reinforcement learning been measured in research?

response preservation - a resp reversal task where there is a high prob of reward at beginning and then punishment becomes more frequent and rewards less

tendency to persist in a bv that was prev rewarded despite potential punishment

those low in CU traits tend to learn this quickly and knew which button to press but those high pressed left button bc they were immediately rewarded for it

What is another way to test reinforcement learning?

through passive avoidance studies where you learn through trial and error

high CU traits perform poorly in these tasks - indicates the have difficulties with RI - links well with lack of activity in amygdala bc its related to emotion which helps with learning

What is parenting well established as?

a risk factor for anti social bv and these can occur through neg cycles which cdr w/ CU traits can worsen by being esp hard to discipline and req more specialised support and intervention

What did Patterson do?

come up with a theory known as coercive cycles - patterns where parents and cdr repeatedly escalate conflicts, leading to neg outcomes for both

What did a lot of early intervention work for child conduct problems focus on?

disrupting coercive cycles and developing effective parenting practices

What are CU asc with?

low response to punishment so they do not learn from the neg consq of their bv and fail to alter their bv in the future - this also disrupts parents attempt to discipline their child , making it harder to manager the childs bv

Why do coercive cycles become a target for intervention?

bc parenting infl child bv, its a key area to change or support in prevention efforts

What happens if a child is insensitive to discipline?

2 questions arise - does parenting actually change child bv or are these bvs unaffected by parental intervention - does the parent become harsher over time bc their attempts at discipline fail?

Name an example of a coercive interaction

parent makes a request - child refuses - parent escalates and gets angrier - child escalates and becomes more defiant - parent gives in/further escalates

this cycle can repeat, leading to worsening bv and a more hostile rs

What are negative practices more strongly asc with?

bv problems in cdr low in CU traits which sugg cdr high in CU traits are harder to parent and parenting will not affect their bv

What are some criticisms of studies looking at if parenting has an effect on bv of cdr with CU traits? 

cross sectional so you are not looking at the change in traits or change in parenting over time so you dont know what is actually having the effect

definition of neg parenting was broad  

mix of inconsistent parenting, poor supervision, corporal punishment

What is the Early Steps Project?

USA based study with over 700 diverse families where they measured harsh parenting by observation, and warm parenting using speech samples of parents talking about their children

What did the ESP find?

harsh parenting was related to increases in CU traits over time - at age 2 it predicted higher CU traits at age 3

warm parenting was related to decreases in CU traits over time 

bi directional effect - cdr’s bv can evoke harsher parenting - CU traits evoked decreases in warm parenting.

What is a passive gene correlation?

parents who have CU genes are less warm and more harsh due to emotional deficits - then pass on these genes to their cdr

What is evocative gene-env correlation?

parents pass on CU gene to cdr who are in turn more difficult to parent - evoke less warmth and more harshness

What is the Early Growth and Development Study?

an adoption study where cdr were adopt within 2 days of birth - limited extent to which biological parents infl their child through env 3assessed effects of shared genes but non shared env 

What was found in the EGDS?

genetic effect - despite biological mother not present, there’s still a link bt bio mother ASB and child CU traits

env effect- positive parenting from adoptive mother w/ whom the child does not share any genes reduces CU traits

adoptive positive mother has buffering effect - when you combine the two, the adoptive mother’s positive reinforcement can buffer the neg effects of the biological mothers - gene x env effect

What can twin studies do?

expl how the interaction bt genes and env can be studied using identical MZ twins to reveal how diff experiences (non shared envs) despite identical genetics can lead to diff outcomes in cdr

What do identical twins have?

the same genetic makeup so any dfrs bt them can be attributed to dfrs in their env sa how they are parented

What did the MSU study examine?

how dfrs in parenting received by each twin affect their bv and emotional dv

What did the MSU find?

dfrs in parental harshness bt twins are strongly asc with difs in aggression and w/ CU traits - twins who received harsher parenting had higher lvls of aggression and cu traits

dfrs in parental warmth are neg asc w/ CU traits - sugg that more warmth may reduce CU traits

study emphasised how env factors can affect psych and bv traits even when genetics are constant - parenting is non genetic factor in DV of ASB and CU traits

What is passed on from birth parents?

early traits that increase risk for dvlping CU traits sa fearlessness, low emotional responsivity and reward/punishment sensitivity