Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits - Positively Worded Version for Mexican Adolescents - Validity and Reliability

Introduction. Callous-unemotional (CU) traits were included in the DSM-5 as a limited prosocial emotion (LPE) specifier. The Inventory of Callous Unemotional Traits (ICU) is the most used instrument for evaluating LPE. The ICU utilizes positively and negatively worded items; negatively worded items may influence its psychometric properties. Objectives. To create a positively worded Spanish version of the ICU child/adolescent version (ICU-A); to assess its internal consistency, construct, and convergent validity; and to determine its correlation with dimensional psychopathology. Methods. Participants were children and adolescents recruited from an outpatient clinic. Clinical data were collected through the K-SADS-PL-5 and BPRS-CA-29. Results. 163 adolescents participated, with a mean age of 15.24 (SD = 1.40, range 13–17), and 74 (45.4%) were female. Adolescents with and without LPE had mean ICU-A scores of 35.03 and 25.55, respectively (t = 6.455, p = 0.001). Internal consistency was α = 0.86. An exploratory factor analysis revealed three factors; a confirmatory factor analysis indicated that a three-factor unifactorial model was the best fit. Correlations between ICU-A and LPE with semi-structured interviews were r > 0.30; the correlation between ICU-A and externalizing psychopathology was r = 0.49. Conclusions. We found excellent internal consistency, moderate construct validity, medium external validity, and moderate correlations with externalizing psychopathology for the positively worded version of the ICU-A.