Heritable and Nonheritable Pathways to Early Callous-Unemotional Behaviors

Abstract

Objective Callous-unemotional behaviors in early childhood identify children at high risk for severe trajectories of antisocial behavior and callous-unemotional traits that culminate in later diagnoses of conduct disorder, antisocial personality disorder, and psychopathy. Studies have demonstrated high heritability of callous-unemotional traits, but little research has examined specific heritable pathways to earlier callous-unemotional behaviors. Additionally, studies indicate that positive parenting protects against the development of callous-unemotional traits, but genetically informed designs have not been used to confirm that these relationships are not the product of gene-environment correlations. Method Using an adoption cohort of 561 families, biological mothers reported their history of severe antisocial behavior. Observations of adoptive mother positive reinforcement at 18 months were examined as predictors of callous-unemotional behaviors when children were 27 months old. Results Biological mother antisocial behavior predicted early callous-unemotional behaviors despite having no or limited contact with offspring. Adoptive mother positive reinforcement protected against early callous-unemotional behaviors in children not genetically related to the parent. High levels of adoptive mother positive reinforcement buffered the effects of heritable risk for callous-unemotional behaviors posed by biological mother antisocial behavior. Conclusions The findings elucidate heritable and non-heritable pathways to early callous-unemotional behaviors. The results provide a specific heritable pathway to callous-unemotional behaviors and compelling evidence that parenting is an important non-heritable factor in the development of callous-unemotional behaviors. As positive reinforcement buffered heritable risk for callous-unemotional behaviors, these findings have important translational implications for the prevention of trajectories to serious antisocial behavior.

Genetic and Environmental Structure of DSM-IV Criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder: A Twin Study

“…We found that the genetic and environmental influences on multiple relevant behaviors (the ASPD criteria) are statistically associated rather than independent. This aligns with the observations that full-blown psychopathy usually involves both genetic and environmental exposures (Derefinko & Widiger 2016; Hyde et al 2016; Viding & McCrory 2012). However, another study has reported statistically independent genetic and environmental factors, as discussed next.…”

“…Our findings have implications for nosology (Livesley 2005; Kendler 2006), psychometrics (Livesley 2005; Franić et al 2013), molecular genetics (Tielbeek et al 2012; Salvatore et al 2015), developmental psychopathology (Hyde et al 2016; Viding & McCory, 2012), and human behavioral ecology and evolution (Nettle et al 2013; Ribeiro da Silva et al 2015; Del Giudice et al 2011; Colman & Wilson, 1997; Ellis 1988). Our study is relevant to all these research fields in providing evidence that a unidimensional ASPD phenotype exists and permeates the domains of genetic and environmental influences.…”

“…This means that genetic and environmental factors were assumed to independently influence the ASPD criteria, even though there is some evidence that “the phenotype of antisocial behavior is much more than a sum of the genetic and environmental parts” (Derefinko & Widiger 2016; Hyde et al 2016; Viding & McCrory 2012). A common pathway model instead assumes that genes and environment influence an intermediate phenotype (latent factor) that can further influence the criteria, and is a frequently considered alternative for the independent pathway model.…”

The Long Reach of Early Adversity: Parenting, Stress, and Neural Pathways to Antisocial Behavior in Adulthood

“…Finally, we cannot exclude potential gene-environment correlations (62). Future studies using genetically-informed designs (63) may be able to parse heritable and non-heritable effects from pathways linking adversity to neurobehavioral outcomes.…”

Interactions between Callous Unemotional Behaviors and Executive Function in Early Childhood Predict later Aggression and Lower Peer-liking in Late-childhood

“…First, consistent with other recent findings from the early childhood period, our results highlight that measuring CU behaviors as young as three years-old may help to identify children at heightened risk for behavior problems across childhood (see Waller, Shaw et al, 2015). These children and their families are likely to benefit from early-starting interventions that help reduce risk for aggression by increasing positive parenting, and improving parent-child cooperation and engagement (e.g., Hyde et al, 2016). Evidence to date suggests that parent-focused interventions implemented via regular contact with families in their communities, and that improve social support and increase motivation for change, can be effective at engaging families and reducing behavior problems even among children with high CU behaviors (Dishion et al, 2008; Hyde et al, 2013; Waller, Gardner, & Hyde, 2013).…”