Despite the association that the “Limited Prosocial Emotions” (LPE) specifier for Conduct Disorder (CD) has with psychopathy, little is known about whether the LPE specifier aggravates juvenile proceedings. The present study of 294 juror-eligible U.S. citizens examined the effects of the LPE specifier on juror perceptions of juvenile offenders. Relative to undiagnosed offenders, those with a CD or CD+LPE diagnosis were perceived as less amenable to treatment and more dangerous, and received a more restrictive sentence. A CD+LPE diagnosis did not incrementally increase negative perceptions relative to a CD diagnosis. Interestingly, participants recommended less restrictive sentences for youth with a CD+LPE diagnosis relative to those showing symptoms of CD+LPE without a diagnostic label. Controlling for diagnostic status, higher levels of perceived callous-unemotional traits in youth predicted negative perceptions and recommendations for more restrictive sentences. Findings are discussed within the context of the probative value of mental health evidence within legal settings.
A vast body of research and theory underscores the importance of parental warmth/affection (hereby ‘warmth’ and ‘warmth/affection’ are used interchangeably) as a distinct relational process that is fundamental to core developmental processes including parent-child attachment, socialization, emotion recognition and responsivity, and empathic development. The increasing focus on parental warmth as a viable transdiagnostic and specific treatment target for Callous-Unemotional (CU) traits highlights the critical need for a reliable and valid tool for measuring this construct within clinical contexts. However, existing assessment methods have limitations in their ecological validity, clinical utility, and the comprehensiveness of their coverage of core warmth subcomponents. In response to this clinical and research need, the observational Warmth/Affection Coding System (WACS) was developed to comprehensively measure parent-to-child warmth/affection. This paper chronicles the conception and development of the WACS, which adopts a hybrid approach of utilizing both microsocial and macro-observational coding methods to capture key verbal and non-verbal subcomponents of warmth that are currently underrepresented or poorly captured by existing assessment tools. Recommendations for implementation and future directions are also discussed.
Background: Elevated levels of callous-unemotional (CU) traits have proven useful for identifying a distinct subgroup of children whose conduct problems (CP) are early emerging, severe, persistent, and underpinned by aberrant emotional processing. The early childhood emotional experiences and expressions of CP subtypes are poorly understood, despite their importance to understanding the problematic attachments and atypical social affiliation experienced by children with elevated CU traits. The current study aimed to test for differences in facial emotional reactions to mood-inducing film clips in children with CP and varying levels of CU traits. Method: We compared facial emotional reactions during a developmentally appropriate mood induction task in a mixed-sex sample of clinicreferred preschool children (M age = 3.64 years, SD = 0.63, 66.9% male) classified as CP with elevated levels of CU traits (CP + CU; n = 25) versus low CU traits (CP-only; n = 47), and typically developing children (TD; n = 28). Results: Relative to TD children, children with clinical CP showed less congruent and more incongruent facial emotional expressions to sad and happy film clips, controlling for child sex, age, and ethnicity. Conclusions: Consistent with older samples, young children with CP show atypical facial emotional expressions in response to positive and negative emotional stimuli. Findings have implications for developmental models of childhood antisocial behavior and can inform the development of targeted interventions.
Callous and unemotional (CU) traits is the term used to describe children who show a constellation of features including low levels of empathy and guilt, uncaring attitudes about others' feelings and their own performance in important activities, and shallow emotions. When CU traits co‐occur with antisocial behavior, they are a marker for a particularly severe, aggressive, and chronic pattern of conduct problems. CU traits emerge in early childhood, are moderately to highly stable, and typically predict a negative developmental trajectory. Decades of research have demonstrated that this population shows distinct neurocognitive and socioemotional deficits relative to their non‐CU counterparts. Given that CU traits are associated with significant maladjustment later in life and a considerable societal burden, contemporary research is focused on refining their assessment and on developing comprehensive, targeted interventions that address their unique treatment needs. Recommendations for the next frontier of research into CU traits among children are discussed.
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