Prosocial behaviour in children with conduct problems: Investigating putative cognitive-affective mechanisms and their malleability

有行为问题(即关于行为问题的程度)的儿童面临日后犯罪、精神健康问题、教育成绩不佳和社会关系问题的风险。品行问题与其他儿童障碍(如ADHD、抑郁症或自闭症谱系障碍)一样普遍，甚至更常见，但我们没有看到这些儿童在宣传、研究支出和获得干预措施方面的水平相同。与其他儿童障碍相比，有品行问题的儿童引起的共鸣较少，但这些儿童及其家人经历了相当大的痛苦。我们需要更好地理解为什么这些孩子会有行为问题，以及可以做些什么来帮助他们。过去的研究主要集中在品行问题儿童如何处理负面情绪。这有助于研究人员和临床医生理解为什么这些孩子很难与他人产生共鸣(他们可能通常不会对他人的悲伤表情做出反应)，或者为什么他们可能会采取攻击性行为(他们可能难以控制自己的情绪，特别是在他们感到威胁的情况下)。更少的研究集中在这些孩子如何感知积极情绪，他们是否关注积极情绪，以及积极情绪是否会激励他们。这是令人惊讶的，因为我们知道积极的情绪可以促进亲社会行为，对与他人成功互动非常重要。积极的情绪表达，无论是快乐的面部表情还是声音，都能让我们感到被纳入，并激励我们取悦他人。对我们来说，认识和注意这些情绪是很重要的。有几项研究表明，品行有问题的儿童可能不太可能注意到积极的情绪表达，也可能不太受它们的激励。我们需要一项研究，系统地研究这些发现是否属实，以及积极情绪处理的哪些方面受到影响。我们还需要知道，我们是否可以训练积极的情绪感知，这样做是否会减少行为问题儿童的反社会行为，增加亲社会行为。最后，我们需要知道，是否所有有品行问题的儿童看起来都是一样的，或者积极情绪处理方面的困难是否只适用于一些有品行问题的儿童，或许是那些难以与他人产生共鸣的儿童？我们还知道，培训积极的情绪知觉对所有或只有部分儿童有效。这个项目解决了我们知识中的每一个缺口。我们将与有行为问题和没有行为问题的儿童和年轻人合作，创建一套有吸引力的工具来评估和训练积极情绪处理。我们还将在培训后测量反社会和亲社会行为，以研究其影响。我们希望这项工作将帮助我们改进对有行为问题的儿童和年轻人的干预。

Children with conduct problems (i.e. concerning levels of behavioural problems) are at risk of later criminality, mental health problems, educational underachievement and problems in their social relationships. Conduct problems are equally, or more common than other childhood disorders (e.g. ADHD, depression or autism spectrum disorders), but we have not seen the same level of advocacy, research spending and access to interventions for these children. The presentation of children with conduct problems evokes less empathy than other childhood disorders, yet these children and their families experience considerable distress. We need to improve our understanding of why these children have behavioural problems and what can be done to help them. Past research has focused on how children with conduct problems process negative emotions. This has helped researchers and clinicians understand why these children can find it difficult to empathise with other people (they may not respond typically to others' expressions of distress) or why they may act aggressively (they may have difficulty in regulating their emotions, especially if they feel threatened). Much less research has focused on how these children perceive positive emotions, whether they pay attention to positive emotions and whether positive emotions motivate them. This is surprising, because we know that positive emotions can promote prosocial behaviour and are important for successful interactions with other people. Positive emotional expressions, both happy facial expressions and voices, can make us feel included and motivate us to please others. It is important for us to recognise and notice these emotions. There are a few studies that suggest that children with conduct problems may be less likely to notice positive emotional expressions and may be less motivated by them. We need a study that systematically investigates whether these findings are real and what aspects of positive emotion processing are affected. We also need to know if we can train positive emotion perception and whether doing so would reduce antisocial behaviour and increase prosocial behaviour in children with conduct problems. Finally, we need to know whether all children with conduct problems look the same or whether difficulties in positive emotion processing only apply to some children with conduct problems, perhaps those who have difficulty empathising with other people? We also know if training positive emotion perception is effective for all or only some children with CP.This project addresses each of these gaps in our knowledge. We will work together with children and young people with and without conduct problems to create an attractive set of tools to assess and train positive emotion processing. We will also measure antisocial and prosocial behaviour following training, to study its impact. Our hope is that this work will help us improve interventions for children and young people with conduct problems.