Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2020 Jul;61(7):818-825. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.13182. Epub 2020 Jan 5.
Callous-unemotional (CU) traits in early childhood explain heterogeneity within conduct problems and are associated with higher risk for later diagnoses of childhood disruptive behavior disorders and antisocial behavior in adulthood. Emerging research implicates impairments in affiliative processes in the etiology of CU traits. The current study tests whether the imitation of intentional actions with no functional significance -a behavior that supports the acquisition of social conventions and affiliative bonds, is a specific developmental precursor to CU traits in early childhood.
Data came from a longitudinal twin study of 628 children (Age 2: 47% females; Age 3: 44.9% females) with observations of arbitrary (i.e., nonfunctional actions) and instrumental (i.e., functional actions) imitation and parent reports of CU traits and oppositional defiant (ODD) behaviors at ages 2 and 3.
Lower arbitrary imitation at age 2, but not instrumental imitation, was related to increases in CU traits from ages 2 to 3 (β = -.10, p = .02).
These findings establish early social and affiliative processes in the etiology of CU traits, highlighting that novel personalized treatment and intervention strategies for CU traits may benefit from targeting these processes to help reduce CU traits and risk for persistent conduct problems in children.
冷酷无情（CU）特质在儿童早期解释了行为问题的异质性，并且与以后儿童期破坏性行为障碍和成年期反社会行为的更高风险相关。新兴研究表明，在 CU 特质的病因中，亲附过程的损伤起着一定作用。本研究检验了没有功能意义的意向动作模仿——一种支持社会习俗和亲附关系习得的行为，是否是儿童早期 CU 特质的特定发展前体。
数据来自一项对 628 名儿童（2 岁时：47%为女性；3 岁时：44.9%为女性）的纵向双胞胎研究，在 2 岁和 3 岁时观察了任意（即无功能动作）和工具（即功能动作）模仿，以及父母对 CU 特质和对立违抗性（ODD）行为的报告。
2 岁时较低的任意模仿，但不是工具模仿，与 2 岁到 3 岁期间 CU 特质的增加有关（β=-.10，p=.02）。
这些发现确立了 CU 特质病因中的早期社会和亲附过程，强调针对这些过程的新型个性化治疗和干预策略可能有助于减少 CU 特质和儿童持续行为问题的风险。
