Childhood conduct problems trajectories are associated with distinct Antisocial Process Screening Device dimensions.

Goulter, N., Cyr, M., Kotler, J. S., Zheng, Y., & McMahon, R. J. (2021). Childhood conduct problems trajectories are associated with distinct Antisocial Process Screening Device dimensions. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment. Advance online publication.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-020-09863-y

Abstract: There is ongoing debate regarding whether psychopathy dimensions (i.e., narcissism, callous-unemotional [CU] traits, and impulsivity) can be meaningfully identified among youth samples and the correlates of these components. Thus, the present study conducted confirmatory factor analyses of the parent-reported Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD; Frick and Hare 2001) among early adolescents, and examined whether trajectories of conduct problems (CP) through childhood were associated with APSD total and subscale scores. Participants included the normative and high-risk control samples from the Fast Track project (N = 754, male = 58%, Black = 46%). Parents reported on CP in kindergarten, grades 1, 2, 4, 5, and 7, and psychopathy in grade 7. Factor analyses supported the three-factor structure. Latent class growth analyses identified four trajectories of CP including extremely high increasing (3.6%), high stable (21.6%), moderate decreasing (38.7%), and low decreasing (36.1%). All CP trajectories were significantly different from each other on psychopathy total, narcissism, and impulsivity scores; the extremely high increasing and high stable trajectories did not differ from each other on CU traits, but they scored significantly higher than the moderate decreasing and low decreasing trajectories. When controlling for other dimensions, all trajectories were significantly different on narcissism. The extremely high increasing and high stable CP trajectories did not differ from each other on impulsivity, but they scored higher than the moderate decreasing and low trajectories. Only the extremely high increasing and high stable trajectories scored higher than the low decreasing trajectory on CU traits.

Keywords:
Childhood