Consistency and validity of the inventory of callous- unemotional traits in a multi-centric community sample

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to validate the Inventory of Callous Unemotional Traits in a multi-centric community sample of Colombian children and adolescents aged between 9 and 18 years. An adapted version to the Colombian Spanish was applied to 903 school students without significant medical background (neurotypical behavior), and 118 with a clinical history of internalizing or externalizing conditions. A group of specialized judges approved the content validity of the instrument in terms of relevance and intelligibility, but concept factorial validity was low for the uncaring and callousness factors. Exploratory factor analysis confirmed the existence of three dimensions (uncaring, unemotional, and callousness), but only 17 out of 24 items demonstrated adequate psychometric statistics. The consistency for the 17-item Colombian adaptation was acceptable (α = .78). Goodness-of-fit calculated through confirmatory analysis was satisfactory for a bifactor structure (model C). Neurotypical participants showed lower total scores in comparison to the other groups. Participants with internalizing conditions had higher unemotional traits, while those with externalizing behaviors more commonly presented uncaring behaviors. This study is important for psychopathy research in Colombia as provides a validated adaption of the most used instrument to assess callous-unemotional traits in children and adolescents.

Keywords

• Adolescent
• Callous-unemotional
• Child
• Psychopathy
• Validity