Background: There is a debate over whether disruptive behaviour should be regarded as a central component of, or rather as an epiphenomenon with little diagnostic value for, psychopathy. Aims: To test whether callous-unemotional (CU) traits and conduct disorder (CD) can be dissociated in the English and Romanian Adoptee Study, a prospective-longitudinal study of adopted individuals with a histo...

The link between callous-unemotional (CU) traits in youth and delinquent, aggressive and violent behavior is well-replicated in the literature. However, the mediating effects of violence exposure on this relationship are unclear. The current study addresses this important gap in the literature with a sample of 88 detained, primarily ethnic minority adolescent boys (M age = 15.57; SD = 1.28). Re...

It was hypothesized that emotional and unemotional individuals differ with respect to the utilization of internal sensations as cues. In comparison to unemotional Ss, emotional ones were expected to make more use of information concerning their internal reactions. Ss who were psychometrically classified as emotional or unemotional were shown 10 slides of seminude females while hearing a tape re...

Research has only recently begun to examine how callous-unemotional (CU) traits interact with contextual factors to predict delinquent behavior. The current study attempts to explain the well-established link between CU traits and offending by testing the potential mediating and moderating roles of 2 critical contextual factors: peer delinquency and the quality of the parent-adolescent relation...

BACKGROUND Impaired verbal abilities are one of the most consistent risk factors for serious antisocial and delinquent behavior. However, individuals with psychopathic traits often show serious antisocial behavior, despite showing no impairment in their verbal abilities. Thus, the aim of the current study was to examine whether psychopathy moderates the relationship between verbal abilities and...

The goal of this study was to examine the extent to which preschoolers with externalizing behavior problems (EBP) can identify behaviors indicative of callous-unemotional (CU) traits among their peers. Participants for this study included 86 preschool children (69% boys; Mage = 5.07 years) with at-risk or clinically elevated levels of EBP who were attending a summer treatment camp. Data collect...