Understanding the development of psychopathic personality from childhood to adulthood is crucial for understanding the development and stability of severe and long-lasting conduct problems and criminal behavior. This paper describes the development of a new teacher rated instrument to assess psychopathic personality from age three to 12, the Child Problematic Traits Inventory (CPTI). The reliability and validity of the CPTI was tested in a Swedish general population sample of 2,056 3- to 5-year-olds (mean age = 3.86; SD = .86; 53 % boys). The CPTI items loaded distinctively on three theoretically proposed factors: a Grandiose-Deceitful Factor, a Callous-Unemotional factor, and an Impulsive-Need for Stimulation factor. The three CPTI factors showed reliability in internal consistency and external validity, in terms of expected correlations with theoretically relevant constructs (e.g., fearlessness). The interaction between the three CPTI factors was a stronger predictor of concurrent conduct problems than any of the three individual CPTI factors, showing that it is important to assess all three factors of the psychopathic personality construct in early childhood. In conclusion, the CPTI seems to reliably and validly assess a constellation of traits that is similar to psychopathic personality as manifested in adolescence and adulthood.

Children with early onset of conduct problems (CP) are at risk for long lasting psychosocial problems, especially if CP co-occurs with callous-unemotional (CU) traits. Joint trajectories of CP and CU traits during early childhood were identified using data from the SOFIA study, following 2031 children longitudinally from ages 3-5 to 5-7 years. The results showed that children exhibiting stable high CP and CU traits were characterized by high levels of fearlessness, and psychopathic traits, including grandiose-deceitfulness, and impulsivity, need for stimulation. Children with decreasing or increasing CP and CU traits were characterized by decreases and increases respectively in their levels of fearlessness and psychopathic traits. Children high on CP and low on CU traits exhibited lower levels of these dimensions. Thus, stability and change of fearlessness and psychopathic traits are associated with stability and change in CP and CU traits, making these temperamental and personality traits promising target candidates for early intervention.

Abstract. The Child Problematic Traits Inventory (CPTI) is a new teacher rated instrument to assess psychopathic personality traits in children. This is the first study to test the psychometric properties of the Dutch CPTI. Teachers completed the CPTI for 287 3- to 7-year old-children. Results from confirmatory factor analysis supported the proposed 3-factor structure of the CPTI. The CPTI total score and three factor scores were internally consistent and showed the expected correlations with external criterion measures that have been linked to psychopathic personality, including conduct problems, proactive and reactive aggression, and temperament. This study also provides novel evidence that CPTI factor scores were positively related to an alternative measure of callous-unemotional traits, thereby supporting the criterion validity of the CPTI scores. In conclusion, this study replicates and extends prior tests of the CPTI in Sweden and suggests that the Dutch version of the CPTI holds promise as a teacher rated tool for assessing psychopathic traits in childhood.

This study analyzed data from a prospective longitudinal study of Swedish preschoolers to examine whether psychopathic traits and concurrent conduct problems predict future conduct problems (CP) across 1- and 2-year follow-ups into early childhood. We tested the predictive ability of psychopathic traits while controlling for concurrent CP, and also by combining psychopathic traits with concurrent CP. A community sample of 1,867 preschoolers (47% girls) ages 3 to 5 years at baseline was recruited from a Swedish medium-sized municipality. Results from multivariate regression analyses showed that psychopathic traits alone (without co-occurring CP) did not consistently predict continuing childhood CP, but did so, among both boys and girls, in combination with concurrent conduct problems. It is important to note that, the combination of concurrent CP and the entire psychopathic personality, that is, a 3-dimensional psychopathic construct, was a stronger predictor of continuing childhood CP than the combination of concurrent CP and Callous-Unemotional (CU) traits among boys but not among girls. (PsycINFO Database Record

Children with early-onset conduct problems (CP) are at great risk for future behavior problems, and this risk seems to increase when CP co-occur with psychopathic traits. Even though studies are indicating that the entire psychopathic personality construct may be more useful in designating a meaningful subgroup of children with CP, research on psychopathic traits and CP in childhood have mainly focused on the role of callous unemotional (CU) traits. Prospective longitudinal data of 1867 3- to 5-year-olds (47% girls) followed annually for two years was used to compare groups of children with different combinations of CP and psychopathic traits on fearlessness and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptoms. Children with CP and psychopathic personality had higher baseline and stable levels of ADHD symptoms than children with CP only or children with CP and concurrent CU traits, while baseline levels of fearlessness did not differ. They were also more likely to display stable levels of the risky combination of CP and ADHD symptoms. Results were similar for boys and girls. Findings indicate that there are reasons to consider other traits and behaviors as specifiers for subgroups of children with CP over and above CU traits, in order to optimize both diagnostic practice and treatment outcomes.