Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-sxzjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T12:48:15.764Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Perinatal and early-life factors associated with stable and unstable trajectories of psychopathic traits across childhood

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2021

Vincent Bégin Open the ORCID record for Vincent Bégin [Opens in a new window] ,
Nathalie M.G. Fontaine ,
Frank Vitaro ,
Michel Boivin ,
Richard E. Tremblay  and
Sylvana M. Côté
Vincent Bégin*
Affiliation:
School of Criminology, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada Research Unit on Children's Psychosocial Maladjustment, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Nathalie M.G. Fontaine
Affiliation:
School of Criminology, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada Research Unit on Children's Psychosocial Maladjustment, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Frank Vitaro
Affiliation:
Research Unit on Children's Psychosocial Maladjustment, Montreal, Quebec, Canada School of Psychoeducation, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada
Michel Boivin
Affiliation:
Research Unit on Children's Psychosocial Maladjustment, Montreal, Quebec, Canada School of Psychology, Laval University, Quebec, Canada
Richard E. Tremblay
Affiliation:
Research Unit on Children's Psychosocial Maladjustment, Montreal, Quebec, Canada Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada Department of Pediatrics, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada School of Public Health, Physiotherapy & Population Science, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Sylvana M. Côté
Affiliation:
Research Unit on Children's Psychosocial Maladjustment, Montreal, Quebec, Canada School of Public Health, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada
*
Author for correspondence: Vincent Bégin, E-mail: vincent.begin@umontreal.ca; Nathalie M.G. Fontaine, E-mail: nathalie.fontaine@umontreal.ca
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

This study aimed to identify perinatal and early-life factors associated with trajectories of psychopathic traits across childhood.

Methods

Participants were 1631 children (51.5% girls) from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development. A wide range of perinatal and early-life factors were assessed from pregnancy to age 2.5 years using medical files and mothers’ reports. Psychopathic traits were assessed via teachers’ reports at ages 6, 7, 8, 10, and 12 years. Latent class growth analyses and multinomial logistic regressions controlling for child sex were conducted. Two-way interaction effects between perinatal/early-life factors and child sex were explored.

Results

Four trajectories of psychopathic traits were identified: High-stable (4.48%), Increasing (8.77%), Decreasing (11.46%), and Low-stable (75.29%). A few perinatal factors and most child-level and family-level early-life factors significantly increased the odds of following the High-stable v. the Low-stable trajectory. Higher levels of psychotropic exposures during pregnancy, socioeconomic adversity, child's physical aggression, child's opposition, mother's depressive symptoms, and hostile parenting increased the likelihood of following the Increasing instead of the Low-stable trajectory. Higher socioeconomic adversity, mother's depressive symptoms, and inconsistent parenting were associated with membership to the High-stable instead of the Decreasing trajectory. Most associations were not moderated by child sex.

Conclusions

These results shed light on the perinatal and early-life factors that are associated with specific pathways of psychopathic traits during childhood and suggest that different factors could be targeted to prevent the exacerbation (v. low and stable levels) or the stability at high levels (v. attenuation) of these traits.

Keywords

Early-life experiencesperinatal factorspsychopathic traits
Type
Original Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 53 , Issue 2 , January 2023 , pp. 379 - 387
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achenbach, T. M., & Rescorla, L. A. (2001). Manual for the ASEBA school-age forms & profiles. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Research Center for Children, Youth, and Families.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing.Google Scholar
Andershed, H., Colins, O. F., Salekin, R. T., Lordos, A., Kyranides, M. N., & Fanti, K. A. (2018). Callous-unemotional traits only versus the multidimensional psychopathy construct as predictors of various antisocial outcomes during early adolescence. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 40(1), 16–25. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-018-9659-5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Andershed, H., Kerr, M., Stattin, H., & Levander, S. (2002). Psychopathic traits in non-referred youths: A new assessment tool. In Blaauw, E. & Sheridan, L. (Eds.), Psychopaths: Current international perspectives (pp. 131–158). The Hague: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Barker, E. D., Oliver, B. R., Viding, E., Salekin, R. T., & Maughan, B. (2011). The impact of prenatal maternal risk, fearless temperament and early parenting on adolescent callous-unemotional traits: A 14-year longitudinal investigation. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 52(8), 878–888. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2011.02397.x.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bates, J. E., Freeland, C. A., & Lounsbury, M. L. (1979). Measurement of infant difficultness. Child Development, 50(3), 794–803. https://doi.org/10.2307/1128946.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bégin, V., Déry, M., & Le Corff, Y. (2019). Continuity and change in psychopathic traits among school-aged children with conduct problems. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 50(4), 580–590. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-018-00864-3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bégin, V., Déry, M., & Le Corff, Y. (2020). Developmental associations between psychopathic traits and childhood-onset conduct problems. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 42(2), 191–202. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-019-09779-2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brennan, L. M., & Shaw, D. S. (2015). Prenatal and early childhood prevention of antisocial behavior. In Krohn, M. D. & Lane, J. (Eds.), The handbook of juvenile delinquency and juvenile justice (pp. 351–370). Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118513217.Google Scholar
Byrd, A. L., Hawes, S. W., Loeber, R., & Pardini, D. A. (2018). Interpersonal callousness from childhood to adolescence: Developmental trajectories and early risk factors. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 47(3), 467–482. https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2016.1144190.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Caspi, A., & Shiner, R. (2008). Temperament and personality. In Rutter, M., Bishop, D. V. M., Pine, D. S., Scott, S., Stevenson, J., Taylor, E. … (Eds.), Rutter's child and adolescent psychiatry (pp. 182–198). London: Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deng, J., Wang, M.-C., Shou, Y., Lai, H., Zeng, H., & Gao, Y. (2020). Parenting behaviors and child psychopathy: A regression mixture analysis. Current Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-00810-4.Google Scholar
Dong, L., Wu, H., & Waldman, I. D. (2014). Measurement and structural invariance of the antisocial process screening device. Psychological Assessment, 26(2), 598–608. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035139.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fanti, K. A., Colins, O. F., Andershed, H., & Sikki, M. (2017). Stability and change in callous-unemotional traits: Longitudinal associations with potential individual and contextual risk and protective factors. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 87(1), 62–75. https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000143.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fontaine, N. M. G., Hanscombe, K. B., Berg, M. T., McCrory, E. J., & Viding, E. (2018). Trajectories of callous-unemotional traits in childhood predict different forms of peer victimization in adolescence. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 47(3), 458–466. https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2015.1105139.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fontaine, N. M. G., Rijsdijk, F. V., McCrory, E. J. P., & Viding, E. (2010). Etiology of different developmental trajectories of callous-unemotional traits. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 49(7), 656–664. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2010.03.014.Google ScholarPubMed
Frick, P. J., & Hare, R. D. (2001). The antisocial process screening device. Toronto, Ontario: Multi-Health Systems.Google Scholar
Frick, P. J., O'Brien, B. S., Wootton, J. M., & McBurnett, K. (1994). Psychopathy and conduct problems in children. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 103(4), 700–707. https://doi.org/10.1037//0021-843x.103.4.700.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Frick, P. J., Ray, J. V., Thornton, L. C., & Kahn, R. E. (2014). Can callous-unemotional traits enhance the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of serious conduct problems in children and adolescents? A comprehensive review. Psychological Bulletin, 140(1), 1–57. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0033076.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gaderman, A. M., Guhn, M., & Zumbo, B. D. (2012). Estimating ordinal reliability for likert-type and ordinal item response data: A conceptual, empirical, and practical guide. Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation, 17(3), 2–13. https://doi.org/10.7275/n560-j767.Google Scholar
Gorin, H., Kosson, D., Miller, S., Fontaine, N. M. G., Vitaro, F., Séguin, J. R., … Tremblay, R. E. (2019). Psychopathic traits in middle childhood: Evidence of a hierarchical three-factor structure. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 41, 341–352. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-019-09733-2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hare, R. D., & Neumann, C. S. (2008). Psychopathy as a clinical and empirical construct. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 4, 217–246. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.3.022806.091452.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hyde, L. W., Waller, R., Trentacosta, C. J., Shaw, D. S., Neiderhiser, J. M., Ganiban, J. M., … Leve, L. D. (2016). Heritable and non-heritable pathways to early callous-unemotional behaviors. American Journal of Psychiatry, 173(9), 903–910. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2016.15111381.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IBM Corp (2019). IBM SPSS statistics for windows, version 26.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.Google Scholar
Klingzell, I., Fanti, K. A., Colins, O. F., Frogner, L., Andershed, A-K., & Andershed, H. (2016). Early childhood trajectories of conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits: The role of fearlessness and psychopathic personality dimensions. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 47(2), 236–247. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-015-0560-0.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leistico, A.-M. R., Salekin, R. T., DeCoster, J., & Rogers, R. (2008). A large-scale meta-analysis relating the Hare measures of psychopathy to antisocial conduct. Law and Human Behavior, 32(1), 28–45. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10979-007-9096-6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lynam, D. R. (1996). Early identification of chronic offenders: Who is the fledgling psychopath? Psychological Bulletin, 120(2), 209–234. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.120.2.209.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mathewson, K. J., Chow, C. H. T., Dobson, K., Pope, E. I., Schmidt, L. A., & Van Lieshout, R. J. (2017). Mental health of extremely low birth weight survivors: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 143(4), 347–383. https://10.1037/bul0000091.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meehan, A. J., Maughan, B., Cecil, C. A. M., & Barker, E. D. (2017). Interpersonal callousness and co-occurring anxiety: Developmental validity of an adolescent taxonomy. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 126(2), 225–236. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/abn0000235.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morizot, J. (2015). The contribution of temperament and personality traits to criminal and antisocial behavior development and desistance. In Morizot, J. & Kazemian, L. (Eds.), The development of criminal and antisocial behavior (pp. 137–165). Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08720-7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murray, J., Maughan, B., Menezes, A.M.B., Hickman, M., MacLeod, J., Matijasevich, A., … Barros, F.C. (2015). Perinatal and sociodemographic factors at birth predicting conduct problems and violence to age 18 years: Comparison of Brazilian and British birth cohorts. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 56(8), 914–922. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12369.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (1998–2018). Mplus user's guide (6th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Muthén & Muthén.Google Scholar
Nagin, D. S., & Tremblay, R. E. (2005). Developmental trajectory groups: Fact or a useful statistical fiction? Criminology; An Interdisciplinary Journal, 43(4), 873–904. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2005.00026.x.Google Scholar
Offord, D. R., Boyle, M. H., Fleming, J. E., Blum, H. M., & Grant, N. I. (1989). Ontario child health study. Summary of selected results. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 34(6), 483–491. https://doi.org/10.1177/070674378903400602.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Olds, D. L., Kitzman, H., Anson, E., Smith, J. A., Knudtson, M. D., Miller, T., … Conti, G. (2019). Prenatal and infancy nurse home visiting effects on mothers: 18-year follow-up of a randomized trial. Pediatrics, 144(6), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2018-3889.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Orri, M., Boivin, M., Chen, C., Ahun, M. N., Geoffroy, M.-C., Ouellet-Morin, I., … Côté, S. M. (2020a). Cohort profile: Quebec longitudinal study of child development (QLSCD). Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-020-01972-z.Google ScholarPubMed
Orri, M., Russell, A. E., Mars, B., Turecki, G., Gunnell, D., Heron, J., … Geoffroy, M.-C. (2020b). Perinatal adversity profiles and suicidal attempt in adolescence and young adulthood: Longitudinal analyses from two 20-year birth cohort studies. Psychological Medicine. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291720002974.Google Scholar
Radloff, L. S. (1977). The CES-D Scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1(3), 385–401. https://doi.org/10.1177/014662167700100306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, B. W., Walton, K. E., & Viechtbauer, W. (2006). Patterns of mean-level change in personality traits across the life course: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Psychological Bulletin, 132(1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.132.1.1.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Salekin, R. T. (2017). Research review: What do we know about psychopathic traits in children? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 58(11), 1180–1200. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12738.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shonkoff, J. P., Boyce, W. T., & McEwen, B. S. (2009). Neuroscience, molecular biology, and the childhood roots of health disparities: Building a new framework for health promotion and disease prevention. Journal of the American Medical Association, 301(21), 2252–2259. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2009.754.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Skeem, J. L., Polaschek, D. L. L., Patrick, C. J., & Lilienfeld, S. O. (2011). Psychopathic personality: Bridging the gap between scientific evidence and public policy. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 12(3), 95–162. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100611426706.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Strayhorn, J. M., & Weidman, C. S. (1988). A parent practices scale and its relation to parent and child mental health. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 27(5), 613–618. https://doi.org/10.1097/00004583-198809000-00016.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Teti, D. M., & Gelfand, D. M. (1991). Behavioral competence among mothers of infant in the first year: The mediational role of maternal self-efficacy. Child Development, 62(5), 918–929. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1991.tb01580.x.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tremblay, R. E., Vitaro, F., & Côté, S. M. (2018). Developmental origins of chronic physical aggression: A bio-psycho-social model for the next generation of preventive interventions. Annual Review of Psychology, 69, 383–407. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010416-044030.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tremblay, R. E., Vitaro, F., Nagin, D., Pagani, L., & Séguin, J. R. (2006). The Montreal longitudinal and experimental study. In Thornberry, T. P. & Krohn, M. D. (Eds.), Taking stock of delinquency: An overview of findings from contemporary longitudinal studies (pp. 205–254). Boston: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/b105384.Google Scholar
Waller, R., Gardner, F., & Hyde, L. W. (2013). What are the associations between parenting, callous-unemotional traits, and antisocial behavior in youth? A systematic review of evidence. Clinical Psychology Review, 33(4), 593–608. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2013.03.001.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wang, J., & Wang, X. (2012). Structural equation modeling: Applications using mplus. New York, NY: John Wiley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Willms, D. J., & Shields, M. (1996). A measure of socioeconomic status for the National Longitudinal Study of Children (No. 9607). Fredericton, NB: Atlantic Center or Policy Research in Education, University of New Brunswick and Statistics Canada.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Bégin et al. supplementary material

Bégin et al. supplementary material

Download Bégin et al. supplementary material(File)
File 951.2 KB