Reduced Face Preference in Infancy: A Developmental Precursor to Callous-Unemotional Traits?

ABSTRACT:

Background

Children with callous-unemotional (CU) traits, a proposed precursor to adult psychopathy, are characterized by impaired emotion recognition, reduced responsiveness to others' distress, and a lack of guilt or empathy. Reduced attention to faces, and more specifically to the eye region, has been proposed to underlie these difficulties, although this has never been tested longitudinally from infancy. Attention to faces occurs within the context of dyadic caregiver interactions, and early environment including parenting characteristics has been associated with CU traits. The present study tested whether infants' preferential tracking of a face with direct gaze and levels of maternal sensitivity predict later CU traits.

Methods

Data were analyzed from a stratified rand

SUBMITTER: Bedford R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4510143 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature