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Psychopathy is characterized by interpersonal features such as superficial charm and grandiosity, affective features such as callousness and lack of empathy, and behavioral features such as impulsivity and antisocial behavior (Hare, 2003). Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), a diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013) significantly associated with psychopathy (Crego & Widiger, 2015), is characterized by the pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others. Across different version of the DSM, ASPD has been characterized more by the behavioral features of psychopathy than its affective features (Crego & Widiger, 2015), although the DSM-5's “emerging measures and models” section includes a more dimensional approach for diagnosis that is more convergent with the construct of psychopathy (Few, Lynam, Maples, MacKillp, & Miller, 2015). Although much more research has been conducted on psychopathy than ASPD (Crego & Widiger, 2015), ASPD is also recognized as a disorder associated with substantial clinical, public health, and economic burden (Goldstein et al., 2017).
Low empathy is a hallmark trait of psychopathy (Hare, 2003). However, there is not research addressing whether empathy deficits assessed as early as toddlerhood predict adulthood psychopathy. To address this gap in the literature, the present study examined whether empathy deficits assessed in toddlerhood (14 to 36 months) predict psychopathy and ASPD symptoms in adulthood (age 23 years), with the goal of early identification of individuals most at risk for stable antisocial outcomes.
Early Empathy Deficits as a Predictor of Psychopathy
Empathy is an “emotional response that is congruent with and stems from the apprehension of another's emotional state or condition” (Zahn-Waxler & Radke-Yarrow, 1990, p. 108). Empathy includes both affective (i.e., feelings of empathic or sympathetic concern for the other person in distress) and cognitive (i.e., apprehending or understanding the other person's experience) components, and can lead to prosocial behaviors that alleviate the distress of others. Measuring empathy in toddlers is challenging. Assessments must address the emerging affective, cognitive, and behavioral components that develop in children's empathic responses (Knafo, Zahn-Waxler, Van Hulle, Robinson, & Rhee, 2008). Despite the challenges, substantial progress has been made in constructing reliable and valid measures of empathy in young children (e.g., Davidov, Zahn-Waxler, Roth-Hanania, & Knafo, 2013; Eisenberg, Fabes, & Spinrad, 2006;...