Measuring Interpersonal Callousness in Boys From Childhood to Adolescence: An Examination of Longitudinal Invariance and Temporal Stability

Abstract

Studies show interpersonal callousness (IC) plays an important role in understanding persistent antisocial behaviors; however, it remains unclear whether IC is a unidimensional construct, represented by invariant behavioral indexes and stable across different developmental periods. This study explores the structure and stability of IC using parent and teacher reports of IC behaviors in a cohort of 506 inner-city boys assessed annually from ages 8 to 16. Results support the unidimensionality of the IC construct from childhood to adolescence and reveal longitudinal invariance between ages 8 to 11 and 12 to 16 in the case of parent report and from age 11 to 16 in the case of teacher report. Findings reveal significant stability of IC across 9 years of assessment. This study emphasizes the importance of testing the longitudinal invariance of constructs that span multiple developmental periods to promote a more unambiguous understanding of developmental stability and change.

This study is supported by grants awarded to Rolf Loeber from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (96-MU-FX-0012), National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA411018), and National Institute on Mental Health (MH 48890, MH 50778). Jelena Obradović received support from the Eva O. Miller Fellowship from the University of Minnesota and NRSA predoctoral training grant from a National Institute of Mental Health. Dustin Pardini received support from the National Science Foundation (SES-0215551) through the National Consortium on Violence Research. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this article are ours and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Special thanks to Josh Wallaert, Keith Burt, and Matthew McLean for their helpful comments and assistance in preparing this article.

Notes

Note: CFI = comparative fit index; TLI = Tucker–Lewis index; RMSEA = root mean square error of approximation.

¹Consistent with prior research (Pardini et al., 2006), a single-factor model provided a good fit to the parent and teacher data across all assessments. However, modification indexes were examined to determine whether freeing residual covariances among items within assessment waves would significantly improve model fit (p < .05). When item residuals are significantly correlated within a single-factor model, it suggests the items involved may be indexing a separate, yet related, factor (Kline, 2005). In this study, there was no indication that consistently adding error covariances among items within each assessment wave would significantly improve the fit of the teacher or parent models, further supporting the single-factor solution.

Note: All loadings and thresholds are allowed to vary in Model 1, whereas they are equated for the same items in Model 2. In addition to Model 2 constrains, loadings, and thresholds are allowed to vary during T1 (Model 2a), T1 and T2 (Model 2b), T1–T3 (Model 2c), and T1–T4 (Model 2d). The same item loadings and thresholds are equated for T1–T4 and separately for T5–T9 in Model 2e. CFI = comparative fit index; TLI = Tucker–Lewis index; RMSEA = root mean square error of approximation; Comp. = model comparison.

Note. All loadings and thresholds are allowed to vary in Model 1, while they are equated for the same items in Model 2. In addition to Model 2 constrains, loadings and thresholds are allowed to vary during T1 (Model 2a), T1 and T2 (Model 2b), and T1–T3 (Model 2c). The same item loadings and thresholds are equated for T1–T3 and separately for T4–T9 in Model 2d. CFI = comparative fit index; TLI = Tucker–Lewis index; RMSEA = root mean square error of approximation; Comp. = model comparison.

Note: All the loadings are significant at the p < .0001 level.

Note: Above the diagonal is the parent report (Model 2e), and below the diagonal is the teacher report (Model 2c); all the correlations are significant at the p < .001 level.