The Child Problematic Traits Inventory (CPTI) is a relatively new tool for measuring psychopathic traits in early development mainly applied in community samples. The main purpose of the present study was to provide further validation of the parents’ version of the CPTI in the Spanish context. In a first phase, the study examined (a) the factor structure and the invariance across gender, (b) the internal consistency, and (c) the convergent and divergent validity of the CPTI in a community sample of 1,387 children (48.1% girls) aged 5–12 years (M = 8.27; SD = 2.17). In a second phase, the study tested the capacity of the CPTI to discriminate between normal and two clinical conditions (i.e., externalizing versus other psychopathological problems) in a subsample of 678 at-risk children (46.2% girls), aged 5–12 years (M = 8.38; SD = 2.25), preselected according to psychiatric measures and clinical judgment. The Spanish parent version of the CPTI confirmed a three-factor structure, being invariant across gender, with an adequate internal consistency, and a consistent relationship with delinquent and aggressive behavior. The associations with external variables differed according to each CPTI dimension. In addition, the CPTI discriminated children at risk for externalizing disorders from children with other psychopathology conditions (internalizing and learning disorders) and from healthy children. In sum, the CPTI holds up as a promising measure to assess psychopathic traits in childhood from a multidimensional perspective and, therefore, would open new ways to study diverse etiological pathways leading to the development of psychopathy in children.

儿童问题特征量表 (CPTI) 是一种相对较新的工具，用于测量早期发展中的精神病特征，主要应用于社区样本。本研究的主要目的是在西班牙语境中进一步验证父母版本的 CPTI。在第一阶段，该研究检查了 (a) 因子结构和跨性别的不变性，(b) 内部一致性，以及 (c) CPTI 在 1,387 名儿童（48.1% 女孩) 5-12 岁 ( M  = 8.27; SD = 2.17）。在第二阶段，该研究测试了 CPTI 在 678 名 5-12 岁高危儿童（46.2% 女孩）的子样本中区分正常和两种临床状况（即外化与其他精神病理学问题）的能力(M = 8.38; SD = 2.25)，根据精神病学测量和临床判断预先选择。CPTI 的西班牙母版确认了三因素结构，跨性别不变，具有足够的内部一致性，以及与违法和攻击行为的一致关系。与外部变量的关联因每个 CPTI 维度而异。此外，CPTI 将有外化障碍风险的儿童与其他精神病理学状况（内化和学习障碍）的儿童和健康儿童区分开来。总而言之，CPTI 是一种从多维角度评估儿童精神病特征的有希望的措施，因此将为研究导致儿童精神病发展的各种病因途径开辟新的途径。