Dimensional Latent Structure of Callous-Unemotional Traits in German Adolescents: Results from Taxometric Analyses

Abstract

A large amount of research has addressed the issue of the latent status of psychiatric disorders and related phenomena. We used a new taxometric approach developed by Ruscio to examine the latent status of callous-unemotional (CU) traits in a large representative study of German ninth graders (N = 3,878). Rather than estimating a putative taxon base rate and using that estimate to generate the taxon comparative data, we estimated CCFI profiles with each base rate estimate between 2.5% and 97.5% in increments of 2.5%. Results of different indicator sets clearly suggested a dimensional solution. This finding is consistent with different studies showing the dimensionality of psychopathy in adolescents. In summary, the results of this study point to the need for critical reflection in defining a high-risk-group in the context of CU traits. However, further studies are necessary to substantiate this result in different samples using different measurement approaches.

The computational psychiatry of antisocial behaviour and psychopathy

“…In recent years there has been increasing recognition that psychopathic traits are not binary phenomena, and psychopathy can also refer to a spectrum of affective ('primary') and antisocial ('secondary') psychopathic traits associated with the personality disorder, but present to a lesser degree across the population 4,[29][30][31] (but see 32 ). Finally, the core callous-unemotional affective traits of psychopathy (low empathy, shallow affect, remorselessness, and lack of concern about performance in important activities) are now used to demarcate a more severe 'limited prosocial emotions' subtype of conduct disorder in the DSM-5 9,[33][34][35][36][37][38] , although callous-unemotional traits are not binary phenomena and are typically somewhat elevated in conduct disorder regardless of subtype 39 (Figure 1). Similar phenomena are therefore described using different terminology in children and adults, a situation that is perhaps compounded by the tendency for most researchers to specialise in only one developmental period.…”