title: A New Measure to Assess Psychopathic Personality in Children: The Child Problematic Traits Inventory.
abstract: Understanding the development of psychopathic personality from childhood to adulthood is crucial for understanding the development and stability of severe and long-lasting conduct problems and criminal behavior. This paper describes the development of a new teacher rated instrument to assess psychopathic personality from age three to 12, the Child Problematic Traits Inventory (CPTI). The reliability and validity of the CPTI was tested in a Swedish general population sample of 2,056 3- to 5-year-olds (mean age = 3.86; SD = .86; 53 % boys). The CPTI items loaded distinctively on three theoretically proposed factors: a Grandiose-Deceitful Factor, a Callous-Unemotional factor, and an Impulsive-Need for Stimulation factor. The three CPTI factors showed reliability in internal consistency and external validity, in terms of expected correlations with theoretically relevant constructs (e.g., fearlessness). The interaction between the three CPTI factors was a stronger predictor of concurrent conduct problems than any of the three individual CPTI factors, showing that it is important to assess all three factors of the psychopathic personality construct in early childhood. In conclusion, the CPTI seems to reliably and validly assess a constellation of traits that is similar to psychopathic personality as manifested in adolescence and adulthood.
authors.affiliation: Curium-LUMC, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Leiden University, Endegeesterstraatweg 27, 2342 AK Oegstgeest, The Netherlands ; School of Law, Psychology, and Social Work, Örebro University, 701 82 Örebro, Sweden.
authors.forename: Olivier F
authors.initials: OF
authors.lastname: Colins
authors.affiliation: School of Law, Psychology, and Social Work, Örebro University, 701 82 Örebro, Sweden.
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Andershed
authors.affiliation: School of Law, Psychology, and Social Work, Örebro University, 701 82 Örebro, Sweden.
authors.forename: Louise
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Frogner
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Psicología - Campus Vida - Dpto. de Psicología Clínica y Psicobiología, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lopez-Romero
authors.affiliation: Violaine Veen, Clinical Child and Adolescent Studies, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9555, 2300 RB Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Violaine
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Veen
authors.affiliation: School of Law, Psychology, and Social Work, Örebro University, 701 82 Örebro, Sweden.
authors.forename: Anna-Karin
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Andershed
keywords: Assessment; Child problematic traits inventory (CPTI); Children; Conduct problems; Psychopathic personality