title: Inventory of callous-unemotional traits in a community sample of preschoolers.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to test the factor structure of the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU; Frick,  2004 ) and to study the relation between the derived dimensions and external variables in a community sample of preschool children. A total of 622 children 3 and 4 years of age were assessed with a semistructured diagnostic interview, the ICU, and other questionnaires on psychopathology, temperament, and executive functioning, completed by parents and teachers. Confirmatory factor analysis derived from teachers' ICU responses yielded three dimensions: Callousness, Uncaring, and Unemotional. Callousness and Uncaring subscale scores correlated with the specific scales related to aggressive behavior, temperament, executive functioning, and conduct problems. The ICU scale scores discriminated cross-sectionally oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD) diagnoses, aggressive and nonaggressive symptoms of CD, use of services, and ODD/CD-related family burden. Longitudinally, Callousness subscale score at age 3 predicted ODD or CD diagnosis at age 4. Unemotional was not associated with aggressive measures, but it was linked to anxiety disorders cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Callous-Unemotional traits contributed significantly to predicting disruptive behavior disorders controlling for sex, temperament, and executive functioning (predictive accuracy between 3 and 5%). The ICU is a promising questionnaire for identifying early Callous and Uncaring traits in preschool years that may help in the identification of a subset of preschool children who might have severe behavioral problems.
authors.affiliation: Unitat d'Epidemiologia i de Diagnòstic en Psicopatologia del Desenvolupament, Departament de Psicobiologia i Metodologia de les Ciències de la Salut, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain. Lourdes.Ezpeleta@uab.cat
authors.forename: Lourdes
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ezpeleta
authors.forename: Núria
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: de la Osa
authors.forename: Roser
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Granero
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Penelo
authors.forename: Josep M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Domènech
mesh_terms: D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000523:psychology*; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019955:Conduct Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010552:Personality Assessment; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D013694:Temperament