Further Validation of the Spanish Parent-Reported Child Problematic Traits Inventory: Discriminant Validity for Distinguishing Children Vulnerable to Externalizing and Other Psychopathology Conditions

Abstract

The Child Problematic Traits Inventory (CPTI) is a relatively new tool for measuring psychopathic traits in early development mainly applied in community samples. The main purpose of the present study was to provide further validation of the parents’ version of the CPTI in the Spanish context. In a first phase, the study examined (a) the factor structure and the invariance across gender, (b) the internal consistency, and (c) the convergent and divergent validity of the CPTI in a community sample of 1,387 children (48.1% girls) aged 5–12\xa0years (M\u2009=\u20098.27; SD\u2009=\u20092.17). In a second phase, the study tested the capacity of the CPTI to discriminate between normal and two clinical conditions (i.e., externalizing versus other psychopathological problems) in a subsample of 678 at-risk children (46.2% girls), aged 5–12\xa0years (M\u2009=\u20098.38; SD\u2009=\u20092.25), preselected according to psychiatric measures and clinical judgment. The Spanish parent version of the CPTI confirmed a three-factor structure, being invariant across gender, with an adequate internal consistency, and a consistent relationship with delinquent and aggressive behavior. The associations with external variables differed according to each CPTI dimension. In addition, the CPTI discriminated children at risk for externalizing disorders from children with other psychopathology conditions (internalizing and learning disorders) and from healthy children. In sum, the CPTI holds up as a promising measure to assess psychopathic traits in childhood from a multidimensional perspective and, therefore, would open new ways to study diverse etiological pathways leading to the development of psychopathy in children.