Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA.
J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2022 Jan;63(1):109-117. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.13466. Epub 2021 Jun 15.
Callous-unemotional (CU) behaviors predict risk for aggression and rule-breaking. Low social affiliation (i.e. reduced motivation for and enjoyment of social closeness) is hypothesized to be a phenotypic marker for CU behaviors in early childhood. However, studies need to establish observational methods to objectively assess social affiliation as well as to establish parenting practices that can buffer pathways from low social affiliation to CU behaviors.
Using data from a longitudinal twin study of 628 children (age 2, 47% females; age 3, 44.9% females), we examined reciprocal associations between observed social affiliation, CU behaviors, and oppositional-defiant behaviors. We tested whether positive parenting moderated associations over time.
We established that an observed measure of social affiliation derived from the Bayley's Behavior Rating Scale and Infant Behavior Record showed high inter-rater reliability and expected convergence with parent-reported temperament measures. Lower social affiliation at age 2 uniquely predicted CU behaviors, but not oppositional-defiant behaviors, at age 3. Finally, low social affiliation at age 2 predicted CU behaviors at age 3 specifically among children who experienced low, but not high, levels of parental positivity.
An objective rating scale that is already widely used in pediatric settings reliably indexes low social affiliation and risk for CU behaviors. The dynamic interplay between parenting and low child social affiliation represents an important future target for novel individual- and dyadic-targeted treatments to reduce risk for CU behaviors.
冷酷无情（CU）行为可预测攻击和违规行为的风险。低社会联系（即对社会亲近的动机和享受降低）被假设为儿童早期 CU 行为的表型标志物。然而，研究需要建立观察方法来客观评估社会联系，并建立可以缓冲从低社会联系到 CU 行为的途径的养育实践。
利用来自 628 名儿童（2 岁，女性占 47%；3 岁，女性占 44.9%）的纵向双胞胎研究的数据，我们检查了观察到的社会联系、CU 行为和对立违抗性行为之间的相互关联。我们测试了积极的养育方式是否随时间调节了这些关联。
我们确定了从贝利行为评定量表和婴儿行为记录中得出的观察到的社会联系测量具有较高的评分者间可靠性，并且与父母报告的气质测量具有预期的一致性。2 岁时较低的社会联系可独特地预测 3 岁时的 CU 行为，但不能预测对立违抗性行为。最后，2 岁时较低的社会联系仅预测了在经历低水平而非高水平父母积极情绪的儿童中，3 岁时的 CU 行为。
一种已经广泛用于儿科环境的客观评分量表可靠地标记了低社会联系和 CU 行为的风险。养育和儿童低社会联系之间的动态相互作用代表了一种重要的未来目标，即针对个体和双体目标的新型治疗方法可以降低 CU 行为的风险。
