“Callous” Children No More Likely To Display Psychopathy As Adults – But May Be At Greater Risk Of Committing Violent Crime

By Emma Young Is it possible to spot the signs of future psychopathy in a child? Some researchers have argued that it is — by looking at the child’s level of “interpersonal callousness” (IC), or the extent to which they are manipulative, dishonest, and show a lack of guilt, remorse or distress at being punished. Indeed, previous studies have found that children who rank high for IC are more likely to develop psychopathic features, as well as to commit violent offences in adolescence and adulthood. So, case closed? Not according to a new study, published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. This work, led by Meagan Docherty and Jordan Beardslee at Arizona State University, suggests that other important risk factors for these negative outcomes in adolescence and adulthood haven’t been properly taken into account — and that when they are, the apparent link between childhood callousness and psychopathy in adulthood disappears. Docherty and Beardslee’s team analysed data collected for the Pittsburgh Youth Study (PYS), in which boys were regularly interviewed and assessed using a variety of measures, from their early childhood in the late 1980s through to adulthood. The PYS group was deliberately skewed to over-include boys who, based on early problem behaviour, were considered to be at a higher risk of going on to commit serious crimes. The datasets also included any official records of later offending, and the results of follow-up assessments of psychopa...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Developmental Psychopathy Source Type: blogs