van Baardewijk Yoast, Stegge Hedy, Bushman Brad J, Vermeiren Robert
Curium-Leiden University Medical Centre, Oegstgeest, The Netherlands.
J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2009 Jun;50(6):718-25. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2008.02023.x. Epub 2009 Jan 21.
The relationship between psychopathic traits and aggression in children may be explained by their reduced sensitivity to signs of distress in others. Emotional cues such as fear and sadness function to make the perpetrator aware of the victim's distress and supposedly inhibit aggression. As children high in psychopathic traits show a reduced sensitivity to others' distress, these important interpersonal signals cannot perform their aggression inhibiting function. The present experiment tested the hypothesis that aggression in children with psychopathic traits can be attenuated by making distress cues more salient.
N = 224 participants from the community (53 % boys, M age = 10.81 years, SD = 0.92) played a computer-based competitive reaction-time game against a simulated opponent by blasting him or her with loud noise through a headphone. The salience of the opponent's distress was increased for half of the participants (randomly selected) by a written message expressing his or her fear. Psychopathic traits were assessed using the Youth Psychopathic traits Inventory - Child Version (Van Baardewijk et al., 2008).
As expected, regression analysis showed that psychopathic traits were strongly related to aggression in the no distress condition but not in the distress condition. Thus, the relation between psychopathic traits and aggression depended upon the salience of the opponent's distress.
It was concluded that children with psychopathic traits are indeed prone to act aggressively, but also that this aggression is dynamic and is dependent upon circumstances. Their aggression can be attenuated by a salient display of others' distress. These results suggest that empathy based treatment techniques may reduce aggression in children with psychopathic traits.
儿童的精神病态特质与攻击性之间的关系，可能是由于他们对他人痛苦迹象的敏感度降低。诸如恐惧和悲伤等情绪线索，能让攻击者意识到受害者的痛苦，并据推测会抑制攻击性。由于具有高度精神病态特质的儿童对他人的痛苦表现出较低的敏感度，这些重要的人际信号无法发挥其抑制攻击的功能。本实验检验了这样一个假设，即通过使痛苦线索更加显著，可以减轻具有精神病态特质儿童的攻击性。
来自社区的224名参与者（53%为男孩，平均年龄 = 10.81岁，标准差 = 0.92）通过耳机向模拟对手发出巨大噪音，进行一场基于计算机的竞争性反应时游戏。对于一半的参与者（随机选择），通过一条表达对手恐惧的书面信息，增加对手痛苦的显著性。使用青少年精神病态特质量表 - 儿童版（Van Baardewijk等人，2008年）评估精神病态特质。
正如预期的那样，回归分析表明，在无痛苦条件下，精神病态特质与攻击性密切相关，但在有痛苦条件下则不然。因此，精神病态特质与攻击性之间的关系取决于对手痛苦的显著性。
得出的结论是，具有精神病态特质的儿童确实容易表现出攻击性，但这种攻击性是动态的，并且取决于具体情况。他人痛苦的显著表现可以减轻他们的攻击性。这些结果表明，基于同理心的治疗技术可能会减少具有精神病态特质儿童的攻击性。
