A Multi-Informant Study of the Validity of the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits in a Sample of Norwegian Adolescents with Behavior Problems

Dagfinn Mørkrid Thøgersen,Mette Elmose Andersen,Gunnar Bjørnebekk

doi:10.1007/s10862-020-09788-6

Abstract

The Inventory of Callous-Unemotional traits (ICU) is a widely used measure of the affective aspects of psychopathy in children and adolescents. Although a 3-bifactor model of the ICU has often been supported, method-variance effects and mixed results for the Unemotional subscale raise concerns. This study applied a multi-informant design to investigate the structural and concurrent validity of the self-, parent- and teacher-versions of the ICU in a Norwegian at-risk adolescent sample (N = 160, female = 46.3%, mean age = 14.73 years, SD = 1.47). Confirmatory Factor Analysis demonstrated method-variance effects of the standard- and reverse-scored items. The best fitting model was the 12-item 2-factor ICU, comprising a Callousness and an Uncaring factor. The scale reliabilities were acceptable with Cronbach alphas ranging from .810 to .906 across respondent groups. Cross-rater reliability was poor, with Intra Class Correlations ranging from .170 to .226. The concurrent validity of the ICU12 was supported by within-rater associations to externalizing problems, aggression, and problematic alcohol use. Cross-rater associations of ICU12-scores to self-reported delinquency and lower levels of anxiety, provided additional support for the concurrent validity. The unidimensional ICU12 total score was associated both to delinquency and rule-breaking behavior as observed for the Callousness factor and to lack of anxiety and reduced fear sensitivity as observed for the Uncaring factor. The ICU items aimed at capturing lack of prosocial emotions, seem to need revision. Future research should assess the predictive validity and clinical relevance of unidimensional versus factor models of the ICU.

Highlights

The Inventory of Callous-Unemotional traits (ICU; Frick 2004) is the most commonly used measure of callous-Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.J Psychopathol Behav Assess (2020) 42:592–604 items like “I do not care who I hurt to get what I want”, and an Uncaring factor consisting of reverse-scored items like “I apologize to people I hurt”
All Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) analyses were run in Mplus Version 8 (Muthén and Muthén 2017), where we tested the fit of different models of the ICU to our data
This study sought to assess the structural validity of the ICU and the concurrent validity of the Norwegian ICU translation in a sample of adolescents with behavior problems

Summary

Introduction

IRT-analyses suggest that the standard-scored items comprised of socially demeaned statements are harder to endorse (i.e. more difficult in IRT terminology) compared to not endorsing the socially encouraged statements of the reverse-scored items Another possible explanation for the variations observed in the ICU factor structure could be differential item functioning (DIF) across raters and age groups. A meta-analysis of studies that supported bi-factor models of the ICU, found that the unique variance explained by the general CU-factor exceeded that of the specific bi-factors (Ray and Frick 2018) These findings suggest that despite the observed factor structures created by method variance effects, DIF and other sample-based sources of variance, the ICU primarily measures a core unidimensional CU construct.

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