Laura T PhD

Applied Developmental Psychologist trying to do good work with good people. She/They. Texan/New Orleanian.

[Laura T PhD @LauraT_PhD]

But like…which intervention? Some of us want the academic gossipy rabbit holes to go down, too!

[Georgie Fleming @DrGFleming]

I just spent the last two hours reading every paper in a back-and-forth debate about an intervention that is almost completely irrelevant to my research and clinical interests.

Is this what I was supposed to be doing this afternoon? No.

Do I have regrets? Also no.

[Preventing Disorders of Aggression @PsychopathyIs]

Childhood conduct problems are a public health crisis and require resources.

Treating childhood conduct problems (CP) will benefit society at large, both in terms of public safety and also public expenditures. @TheJCPP https://t.co/MMv3ucrBY3

[Dr. Emily Gault, PhD @ELRobertson16]

@PsychopathyIs @FLChildBehavior @FIU Thank you so much for sharing, @PsychopathyIs ! We hope families, healthcare providers, and educators find our services on disruptive behavior disorders helpful. If you are a family living in Florida who would like support, please visit our website at https://t.co/H8d6p8M2Nn

[Preventing Disorders of Aggression @PsychopathyIs]

Coming this spring: @FLChildBehavior, a new treatment center specializing in treatment of Conduct Disorder and Oppositional Defiant Disorder, founded and directed by renowned expert in the origins and treatment of disruptive behavior disorders, Dr. @ELRobertson16. @FIU

[Preventing Disorders of Aggression @PsychopathyIs]

In new paper, @ELRobertson16 et al. explore the longitudinal relationships among callous-unemotional traits, antisocially, and anxiety. Results suggest anxiety and trauma histories may be markers of the severity of antisocial behavior displayed by youth with elevated CU traits.

[Dr. Emily Gault, PhD @ELRobertson16]

Thanks to all my wonderful co-authors including twitterless Paul Frick, @EPVaughan, who keeps me up to date on all the advanced stats/modeling techniques, James Ray, @LauraT_PhD, Tina Wall Mayers, @ldsteinberg , and @EECauffman

[Dr. Emily Gault, PhD @ELRobertson16]

Paper: https://t.co/dEJhwuDieq

[Dr. Emily Gault, PhD @ELRobertson16]

I hope this paper helps advance our theories about the development of CU traits and the temporal sequence of these constructs. AND I really hope others test this alternative theory in additional longitudinal (and younger) samples!

[Dr. Emily Gault, PhD @ELRobertson16]

BUT, if our alternative theory is true, the primary treatment goals should be on reducing the antisocial/aggressive behavior among these youths in order to reduce the likelihood of trauma exposure/psychopathology – two very different treatments (e.g., TF-CBT vs PMT/MST/FFT)

[Dr. Emily Gault, PhD @ELRobertson16]

Why is understanding the etiology of CU traits important? Because it has significant implications for the treatment of these youth. If trauma does leads to the development of CU traits, then treatment goals should focus on targeting the trauma and resulting symptoms.

[Dr. Emily Gault, PhD @ELRobertson16]

Important Caveat - These data were in teens and young adults (average age of 15 at baseline). It’s possible we’re missing important relationships between these constructs in earlier developmental periods that would in fact support the original theories regarding CU variants.

[Dr. Emily Gault, PhD @ELRobertson16]

Instead, we believe these data support a theoretical model that anxiety and trauma exposure in these youth are an important *marker of severity* of the conduct problems in youth with elevated CU traits.

[Dr. Emily Gault, PhD @ELRobertson16]

So what does this mean? Our results do not support theoretical models suggesting that CU traits causes increases in future trauma and anxiety as markers of variants with distinct etiologies.

[Dr. Emily Gault, PhD @ELRobertson16]

Now the question is, why did CU traits increase future levels trauma/anxiety? In support of our theory, we found that this effect was mediated by antisocial/aggressive behavior. CU traits increased future trauma and anxiety because of increases in antisocial/aggressive behavior.

[Dr. Emily Gault, PhD @ELRobertson16]

We found support for this theory. In a sample of 1,216 youth, CU traits predicted increase in future anxiety and trauma exposure consistently over a five year period.

[Dr. Emily Gault, PhD @ELRobertson16]

We propose a novel theory that CU traits actually leads to increases in trauma exposure and anxiety and that this is due to some youth's high levels of antisocial and aggressive behavior. In other words, that anxiety and trauma exposure would be a *marker of severity*.

[Dr. Emily Gault, PhD @ELRobertson16]

Meaning that higher levels of antisocial/aggressive behavior in youth can lead to being in more traumatic situations and increases in challenges in life can led to development of psychopathology like anxiety.

[Dr. Emily Gault, PhD @ELRobertson16]

My concerns with this theory is that zooming out of the CU literature and looking at broader work on trauma exposure, psychopathology, & antisocial/aggressive behavior plenty of research has shown bidirectional effects between these constructs.

[Dr. Emily Gault, PhD @ELRobertson16]

However, (since 2017!) I’ve been questioning this phenomenon given that this popular theory was predicated on cross-sectional, not longitudinal data. This is important given the temporal sequence (trauma--> CU) being proposed.

[Dr. Emily Gault, PhD @ELRobertson16]

There is a lot of awesome work by my @SSSpsychopathy @SSSPStudents colleagues on primary/secondary CU variants that have led to an explosion in interest in evaluating whether trauma exposure causes an increase in CU traits.