Early-Life Influences to Stable and Unstable Trajectories of Psychopathic Traits Across Childhood

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

Abstract

Objective. Longitudinal studies revealed that psychopathic traits (e.g., callous-unemotional) are not stable in all children and can be expected to gradually increase or decrease in some of them (Fanti et al., 2017; Fontaine et al., 2011). Several child- (e.g., conduct problems) and family-level (e.g., parental practices) risk factors assessed during childhood have been associated with developmental trajectories of psychopathic traits (Byrd et al., 2018; Fontaine et al., 2018). However, despite the widespread recognition of the importance of the first months and years of life in child development, whether early-life experiences are associated to trajectories of psychopathic traits remains unknown. The current investigation therefore aimed to identify early-life factors that are associated with stable and unstable trajectories of psychopathic traits across childhood. Method. Participants were 1631 children (51.5% girls) from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development with available data on childhood psychopathic traits. Early-life factors (i.e., SES, mother’s characteristics, child temperament, child behaviors, parental practices) were assessed by mothers’ reports at ages 5, 17 and 29 months, and psychopathic traits were assessed by teachers’ reports at ages 6, 7, 8, 10 and 12 years (e.g., “he/she has been insensitive of other people’s feelings”, “he/she used or conned others”). Latent class growth analyses were conducted to identify developmental trajectories of psychopathic traits across childhood. Multinomial logistic regressions controlling for child sex were conducted to investigate the predictive associations between early-life factors and memberships to traits trajectories. Results. Four trajectories of psychopathic traits were identified: High stable (4.48%), Increasing (8.77%), Decreasing (11.46%), and Low stable (75.29%). Lower SES, higher levels of mother’s depressive symptoms and lower levels of perceived parental impact at age 5 months, higher levels of fussy-difficult temperament, hyperactivity, physical aggression, and opposition at age 17 months, and lower levels of positive and consistent parental practices at age 29 months significantly increased the odds of following the High stable, in comparison to the Low stable, trajectory. Lower SES, higher levels of mother’s depressive symptoms and child physical aggression and opposition at age 17 months, and higher levels of coercive parental practices at age 29 months, significantly increased the odds of following the Increasing trajectory instead of the Low stable trajectory. Higher SES and higher levels of consistent parental practices at age 29 months significantly predicted membership to the Decreasing trajectory in comparison to the Low stable trajectory. Conclusions. In addition to highlighting the early-life factors that contribute to a high and stable trajectory of psychopathic traits across childhood, these results shed light on promising child- and family-level intervention targets that could allow clinicians to prevent the developmental exacerbation of these traits, as well as on the potential role of consistent parental practices in their future mitigation. Results are discussed within an early universal prevention framework.

Authors

• Vincent Bégin, Université de Sherbrooke
  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)
  Non-Presenting Author