The Development, Assessment and Treatment of Early Indicators of Psychopathy in Children

2.7行为问题和反社会行为每年直接通过精神健康和刑事司法系统，间接通过与药物滥用和其他精神健康问题的联系，以及对健康、关系、个人和职业功能的相关破坏，使澳大利亚社会损失数百万美元。一旦形成慢性模式，补救措施就无效。最近，研究表明，儿童精神病的早期迹象预示着慢性反社会行为和对传统治疗缺乏反应。目前的研究使用实验，纵向和治疗结果研究的组合来检查：冷酷无情的气质风格的早期迹象，假设是精神病的早期指标，可以在儿童中测量的有效性，冷酷无情特质的因果因素和相关因素，这些特质是否构成慢性反社会行为的风险，冷酷无情的特质对传统的家庭学校治疗的反应的影响，以及在早期治疗它的创新方法的有效性。该项目直接导致对有慢性反社会行为风险的儿童进行一系列临床评估和治疗战略。该项目有可能大大提高目前针对儿童行为问题的治疗方法的有效性，这些方法侧重于家庭和学校管理。

2.7 Significance - Lay description Conduct problems and antisocial behaviour cost Australian society millions of dollars every year directly through the mental health and criminal justice systems, indirectly through their association with substance abuse and other mental health problems, and associated disruptions to health, relationships, and personal and occupational functioning. Remediation is not effective once a chronic pattern has been established. Recently, research has shown that early signs of psychopathy in children predict chronic antisocial behaviour and lack of responsiveness to traditional treatments. The current research uses a combination of experimental, longitudinal, and treatment outcome studies to examine: the effectiveness with which early signs of a callous-unemotional temperamental style, hypothesised to be an early indicator of psychopathy, can be measured in children, causal factors and correlates of callous-unemotional traits, whether such traits pose a risk for chronic antisocial behaviour, the effects of callous-unemotional traits on responsiveness to traditional family-school based treatments, and the effectiveness of an innovative method for treating it in the early years. The project leads directly to a range of clinical assessment and treatment strategies for children at risk for chronic antisocial behaviour. The project has the potential to substantially improve the effectiveness of current treatment approaches to conduct problems in children that focus on family and school management.