Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. 2020 Aug;51(4):563-571. doi: 10.1007/s10578-019-00939-9.
To investigate the heterogeneity of children with psychopathic tendencies, this study identified heterogenous subgroups among a community sample of children based on their callous-unemotional (CU) traits, conduct problems (CP), and anxiety. A latent profile analysis classified 1861 primary school students (age 6-14) into four subgroups based on parent-report CU traits, CP and anxiety: low-risk children (i.e., low in CU traits, CP, and anxiety), anxious children (i.e., high in anxiety, low in CU traits and CP), primary variants of children with psychopathic tendencies (i.e., high in CU traits and CP, low in anxiety), and secondary variants of children with psychopathic tendencies (i.e., high in CU traits, CP, and anxiety). In particular, the secondary variants evidenced higher levels of CU traits, CP, and anxiety than the primary variants. Our findings extend the heterogeneity of psychopathy to childhood and encourage future research to examine the developmental trajectories of psychopathy.
为了探究具有精神病态倾向的儿童的异质性，本研究基于其冷酷无情（CU）特质、行为问题（CP）和焦虑，在社区儿童样本中确定了具有异质性的亚组。潜类分析根据父母报告的 CU 特质、CP 和焦虑，将 1861 名小学生（6-14 岁）分为四个亚组：低危儿童（即 CU 特质、CP 和焦虑均较低）、焦虑儿童（即焦虑较高，CU 特质和 CP 较低）、具有精神病态倾向的儿童的主要变异体（即 CU 特质和 CP 较高，焦虑较低）和具有精神病态倾向的儿童的次要变异体（即 CU 特质、CP 和焦虑较高）。特别是，次要变体表现出更高水平的 CU 特质、CP 和焦虑，高于主要变体。我们的研究结果将精神病态的异质性扩展到儿童期，并鼓励未来的研究来检验精神病态的发展轨迹。
