Risky Parenting and Temperament Pathways To Callous-Unemotional Traits In Early Childhood

项目摘要/摘要 冷酷无情(CU)特征，由低同理心、负罪感和亲社交定义，预示着极高的风险 儿童破坏性行为障碍(DBD)和不良成人后果，包括暴力、精神病、 和犯罪。DBD的标准治疗对有CU特征的儿童不是那么有效。通知个性化信息 DBD的治疗，需要从早期开始更好地了解CU性状的特定风险因素 童年。这项建议的总体目标是确定具体的儿童层面和育儿层面的风险因素 可以预测CU在童年早期的特征。中心假设是对威胁线索的敏感度降低 而从属关系会特别地预测CU的特征。父母高严厉、低热情、低情感的脚手架 也被假设为预测CU特征的增加，包括通过与低威胁敏感度和 父母和孩子之间的联系。该提案的基本原理是，通过成功地分离出特定的 儿童和父母水平的风险因素预测慢性尿道炎的特征，新的治疗策略可以被开发出来 减少慢性尿道炎的特征，进而扰乱通往DBD的途径，包括通过针对 行为、生理和注意力。这些假设将通过追求以下具体目标来检验：(1) 建立儿童早期CU性状的表型标记；(2)建立父母教养的表型标记 实践；以及(3)阐明共同的气质和父母教养因素预测CU特质。所有三个目标都将 在前瞻性的纵向研究中进行追踪。参与者(N=500)将从社区和 宾夕法尼亚大学(n=250)和波士顿大学(n=250)的临床设置和时间评估 1岁(3-4岁)和时间2(5-6岁)。在第一个目标下，低威胁敏感度和从属关系将作为儿童进行测试- CU特性在多个分析级别上的级别风险因素，包括亲本报告和多个新的 计算机和观察性任务，允许同时测量注意力(即，眼球跟踪)和 生理(即呼吸性窦性心律失常)过程。在第二个目标下，低威胁敏感度和 父母的从属关系，通过多个层次的分析再次评估，将被测试为不同 父母教养维度包括严厉、低温暖和低情感支架。在第三个目标下，相互作用 父母和孩子的养育行为和共同的气质特征将被测试为二元风险 影响CU性状的因素。这项提议是创新的，因为它将产生精确风险因素的新衡量标准 预测CU性状的，是由大量的初步数据指导的，假设在关键的 了解CU性状的发育期，复杂的定量分析包含了丰富的 多方法测量框架，将产生关于生物、认知、社会、 以及CU特征背后的情感过程。这项拟议的研究意义重大，因为它将确定 疾病的生物标志物和行为指标(NIMH优先事项2.2)，并导致改善 在干预措施中针对特定的风险因素进行操作，以减少CU特征和DBD的风险途径。

Project Summary/Abstract Callous-unemotional (CU) traits, defined by low empathy, guilt, and prosociality, predict very high risk for childhood disruptive behavior disorders (DBD) and adverse adult outcomes, including violence, psychopathy, and crime. Standard treatments for DBD are not as effective for children with CU traits. To inform personalized treatments for DBD, a better understanding is needed of specific risk factors for CU traits beginning early in childhood. The overall objectives of this proposal are to identify specific child-level and parenting-level risk factors that predict CU traits across early childhood. The central hypothesis is that reduced sensitivity to cues of threat and affiliation will specifically predict CU traits. High parental harshness, low warmth, and low emotion scaffolding are also hypothesized to predict increases in CU traits, including via interactions with low threat sensitivity and affiliation among both parents and children. The rationale for the proposal is that by successfully isolating specific child- and parenting-level risk factors that predict CU traits, novel treatment strategies can be developed to reduce CU traits, and in turn, disrupt pathways to DBDs, including via multi-level treatment modules that target behavior, physiology, and attention. The hypotheses will be tested by pursuing the following specific aims: (1) Establish phenotypic markers of CU traits in early childhood; (2) Establish phenotypic markers of parenting practices; and (3) Illuminate shared temperament and parenting factors that predict CU traits. All three aims will be pursued within a prospective longitudinal study. Participants (N=500) will be recruited from community and clinical settings at the University of Pennsylvania (n=250) and Boston University (n=250) and assessed at time 1 (aged 3–4) and time 2 (aged 5-6). Under the first aim, low threat sensitivity and affiliation will be tested as child- level risk factors for CU traits across multiple levels of analysis, including parent-report and multiple new computer and observational tasks that allow simultaneous measurement of attentional (i.e., eye-tracking) and physiological (i.e., respiratory sinus arrythmia) processes. Under the second aim, low threat sensitivity and affiliation of parents, assessed again across multiple levels of analysis, will be tested as predictors of different parenting dimensions of harshness, low warmth, and low emotion scaffolding. Under the third aim, the interplay of parenting behaviors and shared temperament features of parents and children will be tested as dyadic risk factors for CU traits. The proposal is innovative because it will generate new measures of precision risk factors that predict CU traits, is guided by extensive preliminary data, hypotheses are tested during a critical developmental period for understanding CU traits, and the sophisticated quantitative analysis incorporates a rich multi-method measurement framework that will generate new knowledge about the biological, cognitive, social, and emotional processes underlying CU traits. The proposed research is significant because it will identify biomarkers and behavioral indicators of illness (NIMH Priority 2.2) and lead to improved capacity to operationalize specific risk factors to target in interventions to mitigate risky pathways to CU traits and DBD.