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Deficits in fear conditioning related to psychopathy have been widely studied in adults. However, evidence in children and adolescents is scarce and inconsistent. This research aimed to expand knowledge about fear conditioning in psychopathy and its dimensions in child and early adolescent clinical populations. Participants were 45 boys (outpatients) aged 6–14 years (M = 10.59, SD = 2.04). They were assessed with the parents' and teachers' versions of the Child Problematic Traits Inventory (CPTI). A fear conditioning paradigm (Neumann et al., in Biological Psychology, 79(3), 337–342, 2008) for children and adolescents was used. Conditioned stimuli (CS+ and CS-) were geometric shapes and the unconditioned stimulus (US) was an unpleasant sound of metal scraping on slate (83 dB). Difference scores (CS+ minus CS-) in skin conductance responses (SCR) and self-reported cognitive and affective measures were considered as indices of fear conditioning. Results showed that: a) deficits in fear conditioning were related to some psychopathy dimensions but not to psychopathy as a unitary construct; b) the Impulsivity-Need for Stimulation dimension was a predictor of impaired fear conditioning at a cognitive level; c) the interaction of Callous-Unemotional and Impulsivity-Need for Stimulation dimensions was a significant predictor of impaired electrodermal fear conditioning; d) by contrast, the Grandiose-Deceitful dimension, was marginally associated with a greater electrodermal fear conditioning. In conclusion, psychopathy dimensions and their interactions, but not psychopathy as a whole, predicted deficits in fear conditioning as measured by SCR and cognitive indices. These findings confirm the notion that psychopathic traits are associated with deficits in fear conditioning in child and adolescent clinical populations and provide support for a multidimensional approach to youth psychopathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Child Problematic Traits Inventory (CPTI) is a relatively new tool for measuring psychopathic traits in early development mainly applied in community samples. The main purpose of the present study was to provide further validation of the parents' version of the CPTI in the Spanish context. In a first phase, the study examined (a) the factor structure and the invariance across gender, (b) the internal consistency, and (c) the convergent and divergent validity of the CPTI in a community sample of 1,387 children (48.1% girls) aged 5–12 years (M = 8.27; SD = 2.17). In a second phase, the study tested the capacity of the CPTI to discriminate between normal and two clinical conditions (i.e., externalizing versus other psychopathological problems) in a subsample of 678 at-risk children (46.2% girls), aged 5–12 years (M = 8.38; SD = 2.25), preselected according to psychiatric measures and clinical judgment. The Spanish parent version of the CPTI confirmed a three-factor structure, being invariant across gender, with an adequate internal consistency, and a consistent relationship with delinquent and aggressive behavior. The associations with external variables differed according to each CPTI dimension. In addition, the CPTI discriminated children at risk for externalizing disorders from children with other psychopathology conditions (internalizing and learning disorders) and from healthy children. In sum, the CPTI holds up as a promising measure to assess psychopathic traits in childhood from a multidimensional perspective and, therefore, would open new ways to study diverse etiological pathways leading to the development of psychopathy in children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]