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Childhood Conduct Problems Trajectories are Associated with Distinct Antisocial Process Screening Device Dimensions

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Abstract

There is ongoing debate regarding whether psychopathy dimensions (i.e., narcissism, callous-unemotional [CU] traits, and impulsivity) can be meaningfully identified among youth samples and the correlates of these components. Thus, the present study conducted confirmatory factor analyses of the parent-reported Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD; Frick and Hare 2001) among early adolescents, and examined whether trajectories of conduct problems (CP) through childhood were associated with APSD total and subscale scores. Participants included the normative and high-risk control samples from the Fast Track project (N = 754, male = 58%, Black = 46%). Parents reported on CP in kindergarten, grades 1, 2, 4, 5, and 7, and psychopathy in grade 7. Factor analyses supported the three-factor structure. Latent class growth analyses identified four trajectories of CP including extremely high increasing (3.6%), high stable (21.6%), moderate decreasing (38.7%), and low decreasing (36.1%). All CP trajectories were significantly different from each other on psychopathy total, narcissism, and impulsivity scores; the extremely high increasing and high stable trajectories did not differ from each other on CU traits, but they scored significantly higher than the moderate decreasing and low decreasing trajectories. When controlling for other dimensions, all trajectories were significantly different on narcissism. The extremely high increasing and high stable CP trajectories did not differ from each other on impulsivity, but they scored higher than the moderate decreasing and low trajectories. Only the extremely high increasing and high stable trajectories scored higher than the low decreasing trajectory on CU traits.

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Notes

  1. We repeated analyses examining male and female adolescents separately. LCGA identified an optimal four-class solution for both samples. However, the sample size in the extremely high group for male youth was not large enough to detect significant differences on psychopathy scores when compared to other trajectories. For female youth, this group was comprised of such a small number of participants (.3%), there was no variance in a number of the variables, and thus, these models could not be estimated. It would be important for future research with larger sample sizes to examine sex differences in adolescent CP trajectories and associations with psychopathy.

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Acknowledgments

This work used data from the Fast Track project (for additional information concerning Fast Track, see http://www.fasttrackproject.org). We are grateful to the members of the Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group (in alphabetical order, Karen L. Bierman, Pennsylvania State University; John D. Coie, Duke University; D. Max Crowley, Pennsylvania State University; Kenneth A. Dodge, Duke University; Mark T. Greenberg, Pennsylvania State University; John E. Lochman, University of Alabama; Robert J. McMahon, Simon Fraser University and B.C. Children’s Hospital Research Institute; and Ellen E. Pinderhughes, Tufts University) for providing the data and for additional involvement.

We are grateful for the collaboration of the Durham Public Schools, the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, the Bellefonte Area Schools, the Tyrone Area Schools, the Mifflin County Schools, the Highline Public Schools, and the Seattle Public Schools. We appreciate the hard work and dedication of the many staff members who implemented the project, collected the evaluation data, and assisted with data management and analyses.

Funding

The Fast Track project has been supported by National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Grants R18MH48043, R18MH50951, R18MH50952, R18MH50953, R01MH062988, K05MH00797, and K05MH01027; National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Grants R01DA016903, K05DA15226, RC1DA028248, and P30DA023026; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Grant R01HD093651; and Department of Education Grant S184U30002. The Center for Substance Abuse Prevention also provided support through a memorandum of agreement with the NIMH. Additional support for this study was provided by a B.C. Children’s Hospital Research Institute Investigator Grant Award and a Canada Foundation for Innovation Award to Robert J. McMahon.

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  1. Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada

    Natalie Goulter, Maeve Cyr & Robert J. McMahon

  2. BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Natalie Goulter, Maeve Cyr & Robert J. McMahon

  3. Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Julie S. Kotler

  4. Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    Yao Zheng

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Goulter, N., Cyr, M., Kotler, J.S. et al. Childhood Conduct Problems Trajectories are Associated with Distinct Antisocial Process Screening Device Dimensions. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 43, 455–465 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-020-09863-y

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