Research Centre Adolescent Development, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2013 Sep;54(9):969-76. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12052. Epub 2013 Mar 1.
A deficit in affective rather than cognitive empathy is thought to be central to psychopathic traits. However, empirical evidence for empathy deficits in adolescents with psychopathic traits is limited. We investigated the concurrent and prospective effects of psychopathic traits on affective and cognitive trait empathy in late adolescence.
A community sample of 107 males and 126 females who were approximately 16-year olds at Time 1 participated in four annual waves. Sex-specific classes of adolescents' psychopathic traits were created using Latent Class Analyses. Subsequently, we investigated class differences in level and development of empathy.
For both sexes, Latent Class Analyses produced two classes: one class with low and one with moderate levels of psychopathic traits. Consistent with our hypothesis, for both sexes, adolescents with moderate levels of psychopathic traits reported lower mean levels of affective empathy than adolescents with low levels of psychopathic traits. In addition, female adolescents with moderate psychopathic traits reported lower mean levels of cognitive empathy. Male adolescents showed a trend in this direction. No differences between classes were found in development of empathy, which increased over years.
This is the first study to show that male and female adolescents with higher levels of psychopathic traits have lower levels of affective empathy not only concurrently but also prospectively over a 3-year period. Females additionally showed a similar pattern on cognitive empathy. In this community sample, developmental results suggest that adolescents with higher levels of psychopathic traits have relative rather than absolute empathy deficits.
人们认为，情感同理心而非认知同理心的缺失是精神变态特征的核心。然而，在具有精神变态特征的青少年中，同理心缺失的实证证据有限。我们调查了青少年后期精神变态特征对情感和认知特质同理心的并发和前瞻性影响。
一项基于社区的样本包括 107 名男性和 126 名女性，他们在第 1 次时间点时大约 16 岁，共参与了 4 次年度波次。使用潜在类别分析创建了青少年精神变态特征的特定性别类别。随后，我们调查了同理心水平和发展方面的类别差异。
对于两性而言，潜在类别分析产生了两个类别：一个具有低水平精神变态特征的类别和一个具有中等水平精神变态特征的类别。与我们的假设一致，对于两性而言，具有中等水平精神变态特征的青少年的情感同理心平均值低于具有低水平精神变态特征的青少年。此外，具有中度精神变态特征的女性青少年的认知同理心平均值较低。男性青少年也呈现出这种趋势。在同理心的发展方面，各类别之间没有差异，随着时间的推移而增加。
这是第一项研究，表明具有较高水平精神变态特征的男性和女性青少年不仅在当前而且在 3 年的前瞻性研究中，情感同理心水平较低。女性在认知同理心方面也表现出类似的模式。在这个社区样本中，发展结果表明，具有较高水平精神变态特征的青少年相对而非绝对存在同理心缺陷。
