Callous—Unemotional Traits and Antisocial Behavior

Abstract

This study compared early parenting characteristics in children with different levels of callous—unemotional (CU) traits and antisocial behavior (AB). Four groups were formed on the basis of teacher assessments: high CU and low AB (CU+; N = 378), high CU and high AB (AB/CU+; N = 234), low CU and high AB (AB+; N = 210), and controls ( N = 3,608). In addition, genetic and environmental influences on elevated levels of CU traits were specifically investigated in CU+ and AB/CU+ subgroups. Multivariate analysis of variance and DeFries-Fulker extremes analysis yielded three main findings: First, AB/CU+ and AB+ children exhibited higher levels of early negative parenting characteristics than CU+ children and controls. Second, these higher levels of negative parenting characteristics in AB/CU+ and AB+ children were explained by early child effects on parenting. Third, heritability estimates for CU in AB/CU+ and CU+ groups are of similar magnitude.