Abstract
Children with conduct problems (CP) and high levels of callous-unemotional traits (CP/HCU) have been found to have an intact ability to represent other minds, however, they behave in ways that indicate a reduced propensity to consider other people’s thoughts and feelings. Here we report findings from three tasks assessing different aspects of mentalising in 81 boys aged 11–16 [Typically developing (TD) n = 27; CP/HCU n = 28; CP and low levels of callous-unemotional traits (CP/LCU) n = 26]. Participants completed the Movie Assessment of Social Cognition (MASC), a task assessing ability/propensity to incorporate judgements concerning an individual’s mind into mental state inference; provided a written description of a good friend to assess mind-mindedness; and completed the Social Judgement Task (SJT), a new measure assessing mentalising about antisocial actions. Boys with CP/HCU had more difficulty in accurately inferring others’ mental states in the MASC than TD and CP/LCU boys. There were no group differences in the number of mind-related comments as assessed by the mind-mindedness protocol or in responses to the SJT task. These findings suggest that although the ability to represent mental states is intact, CP/HCU boys are less likely to update mental state inferences as a function of different minds.
Highlights
Children with conduct problems (CP) display a range of antisocial behaviours including bullying and manipulation, physical aggression, and violation of societal rules and norms (Frick 2016)
The groups differed on ethnicity, with the CP and low levels of callous-unemotional traits (CP/LCU) having fewer boys from white backgrounds and more boys from mixed ethnic backgrounds than the Typically developing (TD) and CP and high levels of CU (CP/HCU) groups
The CP/HCU group had significantly higher levels of anxiety and depression than the TD and CP/LCU groups who did not differ on anxiety and depression
Summary
Children with conduct problems (CP) display a range of antisocial behaviours including bullying and manipulation, physical aggression, and violation of societal rules and norms (Frick 2016). Children with CP have a greater risk of physical and mental health problems, difficulties with personal relationships, as well as reduced employment and increased. Children with CP and high levels of CU (CP/HCU) display a callous lack of remorse and guilt and marked deficits in empathy (Frick et al 2014; Viding and McCrory 2015) and are thought to be at an increased risk of developing psychopathy in adulthood (Frick et al 2014; Frick and Viding 2009).
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