New hope for society’s most challenging kids

Parents of young children who show extreme behaviour problems and a lack of empathy or remorse may find new hope from research at the University of Sydney. "We found that the quality of a parent's emotional interaction and attachment with a young child is crucial to predicting if that child will develop this high-risk pattern of behaviour," said David Hawes , the research leader from the School of Psychology at the University. "Based on our findings we can now test early-intervention strategies to help these parents and their children." Children who from an early age show a fearless temperament and do not show interest in other people's emotions, especially when they are upset or in need of help, are known to researchers as having "callous-unemotional" (CU) traits. These children typically also lack guilt or concern about behaviours that would produce guilt in most children. "While most children with conduct problems do not show CU traits, those who do are at greater risk for ongoing problems - particularly aggression. These children are indifferent to punishment for poor behaviour and in fact the more severe the punishment the worse the behaviour becomes," said Hawes. Callous-unemotional behaviour has been shown to be a strong indicator of psychopathic behaviour and violent crime in adulthood.