Callous-Unemotional And Psychopathic Traits: Looking Back at the Early Years to Inform Prevention and Intervention

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

It has now become incredibly clear that children and adolescents presenting with high levels of callous-unemotional (CU) and psychopathic traits are at high risk of experiencing an enduring pattern of psychological and behavioral difficulties throughout their life course. Most notably, the utility of these traits to delineate a clinically meaningful subgroup of youths with antisocial behaviour has been the focus of an impressive body of research. However, longitudinal studies on CU and psychopathic traits pointed out that levels of these traits are expected to change during childhood, at least among some children. This emphasizes the importance of understanding the early mechanisms involved in the expression and amenability to change of these traits. This knowledge has the potential to inform clinicians with targets and means of prevention and intervention that are likely to reduce levels of these traits and their long-term consequences. This symposium will bring together research teams from around the globe (Australia, Belgium, Canada, United-Kingdom) who, in a common effort, will shed light on the importance of early CU and psychopathic traits. The four presenters will share their latest research results on the matter and provide to the audience some of the key elements of the early mechanisms at play, such as the roles of attachment, punishment insensitivity and parenting, the effects of promising early interventions, and the early-life factors that are associated with the developmental trajectories of these traits. An integrative discussion with the audience on the importance of early prevention and intervention will follow.

Sub Unit

• Developmental Psychopathology

Chairs

• Nathalie Fontaine, Université de Montréal (UdeM)

• Vincent Bégin, Université de Sherbrooke

Individual Presentations

• Is Parent-Child Interaction Therapy Adapted for Preschoolers with Callous-Unemotional Traits Superior to Standard Treatment? - Presenting Author: Georgette E. Fleming, University of New South Wales; Non-Presenting Author: Eva R Kimonis, University of New South Wales; Non-Presenting Author: Bryan Neo, University of New South Wales; Non-Presenting Author: Nancy Briggs, University of New South Wales

• Associations Between Attachment and the Primary and Secondary Variants of Callous-Unemotional Traits in Childhood - Presenting Author: Morgane Payot, Université de Liège; Non-Presenting Author: Christian Monseur, University of Liège; Non-Presenting Author: Marie Stiévenart, University of Liège

• Associations among harsh parenting, sensitivity to reward and punishment, and callous-unemotional traits in young children - Presenting Author: Celine Y Chhoa, University College London (UCL); Non-Presenting Author: Jennifer Allen, University of Bath; Non-Presenting Author: Jorg Huijding, Utrecht University

• Early-Life Influences to Stable and Unstable Trajectories of Psychopathic Traits Across Childhood - Presenting Author: Vincent Bégin, Université de Sherbrooke; Non-Presenting Author: Nathalie Fontaine, Université de Montréal (UdeM); Non-Presenting Author: Frank Vitaro, Université de Montréal; Non-Presenting Author: Michel Boivin, Universite Laval; Non-Presenting Author: Richard E. Tremblay, University of Montreal; Non-Presenting Author: Sylvana M Côté, Université de Montréal (UdeM)