Interpersonal trauma and its relation to childhood psychopathic traits: what does ADHD and ODD add to the equation?

John J Marshall,Sebastian Lundström,Karolina Sörman,Christopher Gillberg,L Thompson,Natalie Durbeej,Clara Hellner,Helen Minnis

doi:10.1186/s12888-021-03610-7

Abstract

BackgroundChildhood trauma has demonstrated associations with callous-unemotional traits (e.g., reflecting lack of remorse and guilt, unconcern about own performance). Less is known about associations between trauma and multiple domains of child psychopathic traits. There has also been limited focus on the role of co-occurring disorders to psychopathy traits among children, namely, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and how they interact with childhood trauma.MethodsWe examined to what degree childhood interpersonal trauma can predict parent-rated psychopathic traits in a large population based Swedish twin sample (N = 5057), using a stringent definition of interpersonal trauma occurring before age 10. Two hundred and fifty-one participants met the interpersonal trauma criteria for analysis. The study explored the additional impact of traits of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD).ResultsLinear regressions demonstrated statistically significant but clinically negligible effects of interpersonal trauma on total and subscale scores of parent-rated psychopathic traits. When exploring interaction effects of ADHD and ODD into the model, the effect increased. There were interaction effects between ODD and trauma in relation to psychopathic traits, suggesting a moderating role of ODD. Having been exposed to trauma before age 10 was significantly associated with higher parent rated psychopathy traits as measured by The Child Problematic Traits Inventory-Short Version (CPTI-SV), however the explained variance was small (0.3–0.9%).ConclusionsThe results challenge the notion of association between interpersonal trauma and youth psychopathic traits. They also highlight the need to gain an improved understanding of overlap between psychopathic traits, ADHD and ODD for clinical screening purposes and the underlying developmental mechanisms.

Highlights

Childhood trauma has demonstrated associations with callous-unemotional traits
Research on youth psychopathic traits has mainly focused on callous unemotional (CU) traits reflecting a lack of remorse and guilt and unconcern about own performance [1]
Antisocial outcomes are more likely to be predicted by the combination of the three domains of traits, rather than CU traits alone [4, 5]

Summary

Introduction

Childhood trauma has demonstrated associations with callous-unemotional traits (e.g., reflecting lack of remorse and guilt, unconcern about own performance). Research on youth psychopathic traits has mainly focused on callous unemotional (CU) traits reflecting a lack of remorse and guilt and unconcern about own performance [1]. Antisocial outcomes are more likely to be predicted by the combination of the three domains of traits, rather than CU traits alone [4, 5]. Adult antisocial outcomes are more likely to be predicted by the combination of childhood interpersonal, affective, and behavioral traits than CU traits alone [4, 5]. Childhood studies are mainly concerned with CU traits and have not fully captured the construct of psychopathy, thereby potentially limiting risk prevention efforts. To understand psychopathic traits as a broad neurodevelopmental condition rooted in early childhood, it is important to investigate the manifestation and correlation of all three components of psychopathic traits (i.e., including impulsive and grandiose traits)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion