Childhood callous-unemotional traits (CU), defined as a lack of guilt, empathy, and affect, are important in understanding conduct problems and other maladaptive behaviors. Early CU, in particular, has received recent attention, though current conceptualizations often extrapolate from the adult literature and lack a more nuanced developmental perspective. CU, however, may manifest differently earlier in development.
The aims of this project were to further our current understanding of the early CU construct by investigating; 1) long-term stability and its underlying genetic and environmental etiology from early childhood to adolescence; 2) structural, developmental, and etiological similarities and distinctions between CU and prosociality; and 3) the extent to which early CU and prosociality differentially predict adolescent outcomes. I hypothesized modest stability and predictive validity of early CU into adolescence, and expected early CU and prosociality to be separate but related constructs. Two longitudinal twin samples were used to address these aims (Sample 1: Ages 2 and 3 years [N=314 twin pairs], followed-up in adolescence M=14.5 years [N=128 twin pairs]; Sample 2: Ages 3, 4, and 5 years [N=310 twin pairs]).
Study hypotheses were largely supported. In Study 1 (Sample 1), parent-reported CU was modestly stable, and common genetic factors contributed to this stability. However, most of the genetic and environmental variance was unique to adolescent CU. In Study 2 (Sample 2), confirmatory factor analysis, longitudinal growth modeling, and twin analyses supported early CU and prosociality as distinct but related constructs at the structural, developmental, and etiological level, respectively. Study 3 (Sample 1) further supported distinctions between early CU and low prosociality by demonstrating that both independently predicted adolescent externalizing behavioral outcomes.
These studies highlight the long-term developmental significance of early CU, in both its stability and predictive validity into adolescence. Furthermore, this work demonstrates the relevance of prosociality to our understanding of early CU, highlighting the utility of integrating childhood CU research with work on normative prosocial development. That being said, CU and prosociality are not simply flip sides of the same coin in early childhood, and should be viewed as distinct constructs that independently explain maladaptive behavior.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/42654 |
| Date | 01 June 2021 |
| Creators | Flom, Megan |
| Contributors | Saudino, Kimberly J. |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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