Open AccessThe association between toddlerhood empathy deficits and antisocial personality disorder symptoms and psychopathy in adulthood
Author(s) -
Soo Hyun Rhee,
Kerri E. Woodward,
Robin P. Corley,
Alta du Pont,
Naomi P. Friedman,
John K. Hewitt,
Laura K. Hink,
JoAnn Robinson,
Carolyn ZahnWaxler
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
development and psychopathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.761
H-Index - 171
eISSN - 1469-2198
pISSN - 0954-5794
DOI - 10.1017/s0954579419001676
Subject(s) - psychopathy , psychology , antisocial personality disorder , empathy , impulsivity , developmental psychology , association (psychology) , dark triad , conduct disorder , clinical psychology , personality , persistence (discontinuity) , psychiatry , poison control , injury prevention , social psychology , medicine , geotechnical engineering , environmental health , engineering , psychotherapist
The present study examined empathy deficits in toddlerhood (age 14 to 36 months) as predictors of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) symptoms and psychopathy measured by the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy scale (Levenson, Kiehl, & Fitzpatrick, 1995) in adulthood (age 23 years) in 956 individuals from the Colorado Longitudinal Twin Study. Consistent with the hypothesis that antisocial behavior is associated with "active" rather than "passive" empathy deficits, early disregard for others, not lack of concern for others, predicted later ASPD symptoms. Early disregard for others was also significantly associated with factor 1 of the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale, which includes items assessing interpersonal and affective deficits, but not with factor 2, which includes items assessing impulsivity and poor behavioral control. The association between early disregard for others and psychopathy factor 2 was near zero after controlling for the shared variance between psychopathy factors 1 and 2. These results suggest that there is a propensity toward adulthood ASPD symptoms and psychopathy factor 1 that can be assessed early in development, which may help identify individuals most at risk for stable antisocial outcomes.