Emotional processing in children with conduct problems and callous/unemotional traits.

BACKGROUND A considerable body of evidence now suggests that conduct problem (CP) children with callous/unemotional (CU) traits differ in many ways from CP children without these characteristics. Previous research has suggested that there are important differences for youth with CP and CU characteristics in their ability to process emotional information. The current study investigated the ability of children with disruptive behaviour disorders to label emotional faces and stories. METHODS Participants (aged 7-12) were involved in a summer day treatment and research programme for children with disruptive behaviour problems. Two tasks were administered that were designed to measure participant's ability to recognize and label facial expressions of emotion, as well as their ability to label emotions in hypothetical situations. RESULTS Results indicated that children with higher levels of CU traits, regardless of whether they had elevated CP scores, were less accurate in identifying sad facial expressions. Interestingly, children with higher CU scores were more accurate in labelling fear than were children with lower CU scores, while children with high CP but low CU traits were less accurate than other children in interpreting fearful facial emotions. Further, children's recognition of various emotional vignettes was not associated with CP, CU traits or their interaction. CONCLUSIONS The current study demonstrated that it was the combination of CP and a high number of CU traits that differentiated emotional attributions. Consistent with previous research, youth with CU traits had more difficulty in identifying sad facial expressions. However, contrasting with some previous studies, higher CU traits were associated with more accurate perceptions of fearful expressions. It is possible that there is something specific to fear recognition for individuals with more psychopathic, CU traits that actually make them more successful for observing or recognizing fearful expressions. Additional research is needed to clarify both the recognition and processing of fear expression in CP children with and without CU.

[1]  R. Salekin,et al.  Psychopathy in Youth and Intelligence: An Investigation of Cleckley's Hypothesis , 2004, Journal of clinical child and adolescent psychology : the official journal for the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, American Psychological Association, Division 53.

[2]  R. Blair,et al.  Response reversal and children with psychopathic tendencies: success is a function of salience of contingency change. , 2005, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[3]  M. Willoughby,et al.  Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and callous-unemotional traits as moderators of conduct problems when examining impairment and aggression in elementary school children. , 2008, Aggressive behavior.

[4]  Christopher J Patrick,et al.  Psychopathy and physiological response to emotionally evocative sounds. , 2004, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[5]  P. Frick,et al.  Psychopathy and conduct problems in children: II. Implications for subtyping children with conduct problems. , 1997, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[6]  M. Willoughby,et al.  Effects of Methylphenidate and Behavior Modification on the Social and Academic Behavior of Children With Disruptive Behavior Disorders: The Moderating Role of Callous/Unemotional Traits , 2007, Journal of clinical child and adolescent psychology : the official journal for the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, American Psychological Association, Division 53.

[7]  R. Hare,et al.  Some Misconceptions about the Hare PCL-R and Risk Assessment , 2004 .

[8]  Children's understanding of moral emotions. , 1988 .

[9]  C. Patrick.  Emotional Processes in Psychopathy , 2001 .

[10]  Robert Plomin,et al.  Evidence for substantial genetic risk for psychopathy in 7-year-olds. , 2005, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[11]  J. Lochman,et al.  Callous/unemotional traits and social-cognitive processes in adjudicated youths. , 2003, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[12]  J. Lochman,et al.  Adolescent Psychopathy and Personality Theory—the Interpersonal Circumplex: Expanding Evidence of a Nomological Net , 2005, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[13]  James M. Swanson,et al.  ADHD with Comorbid Disorders: Clinical Assessment and Management , 1999 .

[14]  M. Bradley,et al.  The psychopath as observer: emotion and attention in picture processing. , 2000, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[15]  D. Farrington.  The Importance of Child and Adolescent Psychopathy , 2005, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[16]  P. Frick,et al.  Intelligence, Callous-Unemotional Traits, and Antisocial Behavior , 1998 .

[17]  J. Hughes,et al.  Callous/Unemotional Traits Moderate the Relation Between Ineffective Parenting and Child Externalizing Problems: A Partial Replication and Extension , 2003, Journal of clinical child and adolescent psychology : the official journal for the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, American Psychological Association, Division 53.

[18]  D. Lynam.  Early identification of chronic offenders: who is the fledgling psychopath? , 1996, Psychological bulletin.

[19]  S. Scott,et al.  Deafness to fear in boys with psychopathic tendencies. , 2005, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[20]  P. Frick,et al.  Psychopathy and conduct problems in children. , 1994, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[21]  U. Frith,et al.  Neurocognitive explanations of the antisocial personality disorders , 2000 .

[22]  P. Frick,et al.  Ineffective parenting and childhood conduct problems : The moderating role of callous-unemotional traits , 1997 .

[23]  D. Lynam.  Pursuing the psychopath: capturing the fledgling psychopath in a nomological net. , 1997, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[24]  D. Waschbusch.  A meta-analytic examination of comorbid hyperactive-impulsive-attention problems and conduct problems. , 2002, Psychological bulletin.

[25]  S. Lilienfeld,et al.  The Association between Anxiety and Psychopathy Dimensions in Children , 1999, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[26]  Christopher T. Barry,et al.  Callous-Unemotional Traits and Conduct Problems in the Prediction of Conduct Problem Severity, Aggression, and Self-Report of Delinquency , 2003, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[27]  R. Blair,et al.  A cognitive developmental approach to morality: investigating the psychopath , 1995, Cognition.

[28]  D. Waschbusch,et al.  Combining Data from Parent Ratings and Parent Interview When Assessing ADHD , 2007 .

[29]  D. Waschbusch,et al.  Social Problem Solving, Conduct Problems, and Callous-Unemotional Traits in Children , 2007, Child psychiatry and human development.

[30]  Michael Woodworth,et al.  Psychopathy and Aggression. , 2006 .

[31]  P. Frick.  Developmental pathways to conduct disorder: Implications for serving youth who show severe aggressive and antisocial behavior , 2004 .

[32]  P. Frick,et al.  Callous-Unemotional Traits and Subtypes of Conduct Disorder , 1999, Clinical child and family psychology review.

[33]  W. Iacono,et al.  Genetic and Environmental Influences on Psychopathy Trait Dimensions in a Community Sample of Male Twins , 2003, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[34]  M. Gould,et al.  Aggregating data from multiple informants in child psychiatry epidemiological research. , 1992, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[35]  S. Hart,et al.  Reconstructing psychopathy: clarifying the significance of antisocial and socially deviant behavior in the diagnosis of psychopathic personality disorder. , 2004, Journal of personality disorders.

[36]  J. Halperin,et al.  Methylphenidate response in aggressive and nonaggressive ADHD children: distinctions on laboratory measures of symptoms. , 1992, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[37]  Christopher T. Barry,et al.  Callous-unemotional traits and developmental pathways to severe conduct problems. , 2003, Developmental psychology.

[38]  F. Clark,et al.  Emotion attributions in the psychopath , 1995 .

[39]  Nirbhay N. Singh,et al.  Recognition of Facial Expressions of Emotion by Children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder , 1998, Behavior modification.

[40]  R. Hare,et al.  Psychopathy and offending from adolescence to adulthood: a 10-year follow-up. , 2004, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[41]  P. Hayes,et al.  Psychopathy and sensitivity to the emotional polarity of metaphorical statements , 2003 .

[42]  R. Hare,et al.  Abnormal processing of affective words by psychopaths. , 1991, Psychophysiology.

[43]  D. Lynam,et al.  The development of psychopathy. , 2005, Annual review of clinical psychology.

[44]  P. Ekman,et al.  Measuring facial movement , 1976 .

[45]  L. Camras,et al.  Vignettes for Emotion Recognition Research and Affective Therapy With Children , 1988 .

[46]  Carl B. Clements,et al.  Callous-Unemotional Traits, Impulsivity, and Emotional Processing in Adolescents With Antisocial Behavior Problems , 2003, Journal of clinical child and adolescent psychology : the official journal for the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, American Psychological Association, Division 53.

[47]  Jacob Cohen,et al.  Combining discrepant diagnostic information from multiple sources: Are complex algorithms better than simple ones? , 1992, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[48]  A. Caspi,et al.  Adolescent Psychopathy and the Big Five: Results from Two Samples , 2005, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[49]  Shame and guilt in children: Differential situational antecedents and experiential correlates , 2000 .

[50]  B. Corbett,et al.  Processing Affective Stimuli in Children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder , 2000, Child neuropsychology : a journal on normal and abnormal development in childhood and adolescence.

[51]  D. Perrett,et al.  Reduced sensitivity to others’ fearful expressions in psychopathic individuals , 2004 .

[52]  D. Lynam.  Early identification of the fledgling psychopath : Locating the psychopathic child in the current nomenclature , 1998 .

[53]  P. Frick,et al.  Reward dominance: Associations with anxiety, conduct problems, and psychopathy in children , 1996, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[54]  G. S. Pettit,et al.  Deficient Behavioral Inhibition and Anomalous Selective Attention in a Community Sample of Adolescents with Psychopathic Traits and Low-Anxiety Traits , 2005, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[55]  L. Eckel,et al.  The relation between salivary cortisol, callous-unemotional traits, and conduct problems in an adolescent non-referred sample. , 2006, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[56]  R. Blair,et al.  The psychopathic individual: a lack of responsiveness to distress cues? , 1997, Psychophysiology.

[57]  R. Hare,et al.  Remembering details of emotional events: A comparison between psychopathic and nonpsychopathic offenders , 1996 .

[58]  P. Frick,et al.  Temperament and Developmental Pathways to Conduct Problems , 2004, Journal of clinical child and adolescent psychology : the official journal for the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, American Psychological Association, Division 53.

[59]  W. Pelham,et al.  Teacher ratings of DSM-III-R symptoms for the disruptive behavior disorders. , 1992, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[60]  P. Frick,et al.  Psychopathy in Children and Adolescents: The Need for a Developmental Perspective , 2005, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[61]  R. Blair,et al.  A Selective Impairment in the Processing of Sad and Fearful Expressions in Children with Psychopathic Tendencies , 2001, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[62]  R. Blair,et al.  Expression recognition and behavioural problems in early adolescence , 2000 .

[63]  P. Gosselin,et al.  Children's knowledge of facial expressions of emotions : Distinguishing fear and surprise , 1999 .

[64]  R. Blair,et al.  Facial expressions, their communicatory functions and neuro-cognitive substrates. , 2003, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.

[65]  R. Blair,et al.  Recognition of Emotion in Facial Expressions and Vocal Tones in Children With Psychopathic Tendencies , 2001, The Journal of genetic psychology.

[66]  P. Frick,et al.  Callous–Unemotional Traits in Predicting the Severity and Stability of Conduct Problems and Delinquency , 2005, Journal of abnormal child psychology.