Current Projects - 2007

The laboratory recently completed a longitudinal study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health that followed a group of children who were, during the first year of the study, in the 3rd, 4th, 6th, and 7th grades of two school systems in a moderate sized city in the Southeastern United States. Over a thousand youth were screened on parent and teacher ratings of callous-unemotional (CU) traits and conduct problems. Four groups of children were recruited to participate in a more in depth assessment and in yearly follow-up assessments:

• children high on both CU traits and conduct problems,
• children high on conduct problems but low on CU traits,
• children low on conduct problems but low on CU traits, and
• children low on both CU traits and conduct problems.
  

          This study was one of the first to investigate the relation between CU traits and conduct problems in an non-referred or non-incarcerated sample of children. The findings have supported the findings from past research suggesting that children with CU traits and conduct problems show a number of characteristics which suggest that the developmental processes underlying their problem behavior is different from the processes involved in the development of conduct problems for children without these traits. Further, it was one of the first to investigate the stability and predictive utility of CU traits in a non-referred sample. Results suggest that these traits are quite stable and they do predict a particularly severe and aggressive pattern of antisocial behavior.

Sample Publications:

• Frick, P.J., Bodin, S.D., & Barry, C.T. (2000). Psychopathic traits and conduct problems in community and clinic-referred samples of children: Further development of the Psychopathy Screening Device. Psychological Assessment, 12, 382-393.

• Frick, P.J., Cornell, A.H., Barry, C.T., Bodin, S.D., & Dane, H.A. (2003). Callous-unemotional traits and conduct problems in the prediction of conduct problem severity, aggression, and self-report of delinquency. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 31, 457-470.

• Frick, P.J., Cornell, A.H., Bodin, S.D., Dane, H.A., Barry, C.T., & Loney, B.R. (2003). Callous-Unemotional traits and developmental pathways to severe aggressive and antisocial behavior. Developmental Psychology, 39, 246-260

• Frick, P.J. Kimonis, E.R., Dandreaux, D.M., & Farrell, J.M. (2003). The four-year stability of psychopathic traits in non-referred youth. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 21, 713-736.

     The Young Offenders Process (YOP) is a demonstration project of the Miami-Dade Juvenile Assessment Center (JAC) funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The goal of the YOP is to develop, implement, and evaluate an innovative model of service delivery for young juvenile offenders below the age of 12. The explicit goal of the project is to implement a coordinated system of service delivery for young offenders that is sensitive to their unique developmental needs and that reduces their risk for re-offending.
     The structure of all aspects of the YOP was guided by several important principles.

1. The methods of assessment and intervention used in the YOP should be based on the most current research, employing techniques with proven validity and efficacy when such are available.
   

2. The model of service delivery and resource allocation should be individualized, community-based and comprehensive services, recognizing the diversity of factors that can place a child at risk for re-offending. It should identify family health issues, and other care needs, and incorporate these into the child’s service plan.
   

3. The model of service of delivery should be sensitive to the child’s developmental level, gender, cultural/religious context, and physical and mental health.
   

4. Systemic service delivery should emphasize community-based services that strengthen the child’s family, peer, school, and neighborhood contexts and thus enhance the likelihood that the child’s environment will support any positive changes brought about by the intervention to reduce the child’s risk for re-offending.
   

5. The model of service delivery should be integrated into existing juvenile justice, social service, public health, and mental health systems to enhance community support and enhance the likelihood of continuation of service delivery system support after the initial demonstration period.
   

6. All components of the model and its implementation should be clearly specified, manualized, and monitored to allow replication.
   

7. A system for evaluating the success of the YOP, with the primary outcome of interest being reductions in the rate and severity of reoffending for participating youth, should be included as part of the design of the program.
   

     All offenders who are arrested and processed by the Miami-Dade JAC will undergo a comprehensive assessment as part of the YOP and then assigned to an individualized intervention plan. This individualization takes into account two important dimensions: the intensity of services needed and the type of services needed within the different levels of intensity.
     The interventions are provided in the community and are systematically monitored as part of the YOP. A comprehensive system of evaluating the success of the YOP involves a pre-post comparison of youth on standardized measures of psychological functioning, a comparison of arrest rates from a previous cohort of young offenders from the Miami-Dade JAC, and a comparison of arrest rates from young offenders at the Tampa JAC who were arrested during the same period as those youth served by the YOP.

We have recently completed a series of the studies on the assessment of and correlate to callous-unemotional (CU) traits and different patterns of aggression in juvenile detention centers across the metropolitan New Orleans area. In a study combining data from several different the detention centers, we tested the psychometric properties of a new and extended measure of CU Traits. The Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU) was developed to provide an efficient, reliable, and valid assessment of CU traits in youth. The factor structure and correlates of the ICU scale were tested in a sample of 248 juvenile offenders (188 boys, 60 girls) between the ages of 12 and 20 (M = 15.47, SD = 1.37). Results of confirmatory factor analyses suggested that three factors underlie the ICU, which relate to a higher-order callous-unemotional dimension. These include Uncaring (e.g., “I work hard on everything I do”-reverse scored), Callousness (e.g., “I do not care about doing things well”), and Unemotional (“I express my feelings openly”-reverse scored). CU traits, as assessed by the ICU, were associated with aggression, delinquency, and both psychophysiological and self-report indices of emotional reactivity. There were some important differences across the three facets of the ICU in their associations with these key external criteria. Specifically, the Callousness dimension was more strongly associated with aggression, whereas the Uncaring dimension was more strongly related to offending. The associations with the Unemotional dimension were specific to emotional functioning (i.e., lack of empathy; lack of positive affect).

In a study using participants from one detention center, we investigated moderators of the association between CU traits and emotional processing deficits to distress stimuli in a sample of 100 detained boys (Mean age = 15.57; SD = 1.28). In this sample, CU traits were related to deficits in emotional processing in youth high on aggression and youth high on exposure to community violence. However, not all youth with CU traits also showed an emotional processing deficit to distress stimuli, as assessed by a picture version of the dot-probe task. For example, some youth high on CU traits showed hypervigilance to distress pictures. These hypervigilant youth differed from those with an emotional deficit by showing stronger histories of abuse. This finding supports the possibility that there may be some environmentally influenced pathways in the development of CU traits. Consistent with a theory suggesting that emotional deficits fail to inhibit aggressive behavior, youth high on CU traits who also showed an emotional processing deficit showed the greatest levels of aggression and violent delinquency.

Also, in this detained sample of boys, we investigated the behavioral and psychophysiological responses to provocation for boys with different patterns of aggressive behavior. While individuals who exhibit CU traits are typically viewed as emotionless, they tend to engage in behaviors suggestive of anger. That is, they tend to respond to provocation with aggression (reactive aggression), in addition to responding with instrumental and proactive aggression. We examined the behavioral and psychophysiological responses to provocation of detained boys using a computer-based aggression paradigm that provides provocations of different levels of intensity. Youth who reported histories with high levels of both proactive and reactive aggression and who also reported a callous-unemotional style exhibited reactive aggression on the computer analogue task, despite showing no differences in their psychophysiological reactivity in response to provocation. For these youth, a disconnect between their psychophysiological reactivity and behavioral responses to provocation was evident. In contrast, youths who reported histories of only high levels of reactive aggression showed both aggressive reactivity and psychophysiological reactivity to minimal levels of provocation.

In a final study, we investigated the distinction between reactive and proactive aggression in a sample of detained girls ages 12 to 18. The study employed a self-report measure of aggression that was designed explicitly to assess both the forms that aggression takes (i.e., relational and overt), as well as the functions that aggression serves (i.e., reactive and proactive). Reactive aggression, both relational and overt, was uniquely associated with emotional dysregulation and susceptibility to angry arousal, whereas proactive aggression was uniquely associated with callous-unemotional (CU) traits and positive outcome expectations for aggression. While overt aggression appeared to largely account for these associations, relational aggression showed strong and unique associations with CU traits. These findings highlight the importance of assessing reactive and proactive aggression, as well as both overt and relational aggression in detained girls.

Sample References:

Kimonis, E.R., Frick, P.J., Munoz, L.C., & Aucoin, K.J. Callous-unemotional traits and the emotional processing of distress cues in detained boys: Testing the moderating role of aggression, exposure to community violence, and histories of abuse. Manuscript submitted for publication.

Kimonis, E.R., Frick, P.J., Munoz, L.C., & Aucoin, K.J. Is an emotional processing deficit a marker for a more severe form of callous-unemotional traits? Manuscript submitted for publication.

Kimonis, E.R., Frick, P.J., Skeem, J.L., Marsee, M.A., Cruise, K., Munoz, L.C., & Aucoin, K.J. Assessing callous-unemotional traits in adolescent offenders: Validation of the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits. Manuscript submitted for publication.

Marsee, M.A., & Frick, P.J. Exploring the cognitive and emotional correlates to proactive and reactive aggression in a sample of detained girls. Manuscript submitted for publication.

Muñoz, L.C., Frick, P.J., Kimonis, E.R., & Aucoin, K.J. Types of aggression, responsiveness to provocation and callous-unemotional traits in detained adolescents. Manuscript submitted for publication.

Research suggests that the construct of relational aggression may be particularly important, especially when examining the way in which girls harm others. However, few studies have considered whether, like overt aggression, relational aggression can be divided into reactive and proactive types. One previous study conducted in this lab used a detained sample of adolescent girls and examined the constructs of proactive and reactive aggression within the context of relational aggression. We found that proactive relational aggression and reactive relational aggression showed similar divergent correlates as has been reported for overt aggression. We are attempting to replicate these findings using a community mixed gender sample of older children and early adolescents. This replication is important because this sample is likely to show lower levels of overt aggression; thus, relational aggression may be more important in accounting for unique variance in cognitive and emotional variables when controlling for overt aggression. Further, this study will investigate how bullying may be related to the various types of aggression. The study will be conducted using 400 4th thru 6th graders from one local public school system.

Psychosocial Outcomes Monitoring Scales (POMS)

The lab also conducts work through a contract with the Louisiana State Office of Mental Health (OMH). This contract is to assist OMH in the development and implementation of a system to evaluate the outcome of the services provided at OMH facilities. As part of the contract, the Psychosocial Outcomes Monitoring Scales (POMS) was developed to provide an objective assessment of changes in OMH consumer’s clinical and functional status over time as a result of treatment and support services received. The POMS is completed within 3 months of intake and every 6 months until discharge to a random sample of 25% of consumers at each OMH facility by certified outcome evaluators. The data are entered into a statewide data base to provide immediate descriptive and outcome data. The lab has participated in the development and pilot testing of both the adult and youth versions of the POMS. It also assists in the training of assessors statewide in the administration of the POMS assessment and has primary responsibility for establishing and maintaining the reliability of the assessments.

FACTORS PREDICTING THERAPEUTIC ALLIANCE IN ANTISOCIAL ADOLESCENTS

This project investigates the relationship between therapeutic alliance and treatment success among adjudicated adolescents. Research has suggested that therapeutic alliance is a robust predictor of future therapeutic outcomes. Therapeutic alliance is defined as the bonds, tasks, and goals created by the therapist and client that strengthen the possibility for therapeutic change. While treatment of children and adolescents is often hard in general, treating youth with conduct disorder is especially difficult because of the variety of social, cognitive, and emotional deficits experienced by youth showing this disorder. Youth with conduct disorder can be separated into two categories: adolescent-onset and childhood-onset groups. The childhood-onset group can further be separated into impulsive and callous/unemotional types. Each group may have certain characteristics that make forming a therapeutic alliance difficult. However, this has not been tested directly. This study examines youth showing the adolescent-onset, impulsive type of childhood-onset, and the callous/unemotional type of childhood-onset conduct disorder, and it investigates how well they form therapeutic alliances in juvenile institutions. Also, the success in treatment of each group based on the formation of therapeutic alliances is examined. Participants are boys, ages 10 – 17, from several juvenile correctional facilities in southeastern Louisiana who are receiving mental health services while adjudicated.