This study aimed to further validate the self-reported version of the Proposed Specifiers Conduct Disorder (PSCD) scale, testing the associations between the PSCD with a scale that measures emotional/behavioral difficulties and prosocial behaviors (Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire, SDQ). A total of 536 Italian students (47.76% male; 11–14 years) completed the PSCD, while their caregivers and teachers completed the SDQ. A series of confirmatory factor analyses to test the best fitting model were run. The internal consistency of the PSCD was evaluated, and the correlations between the PSCD self-reported scores and SDQ Parent and Teacher report scores were examined. A bi-factor model was fitted with a refined 19-item version of the scale, which showed adequate fit indices. The PSCD total score was strongly associated with higher parent- and teacher-rated conduct problems, hyperactivity, and lower prosocial behavioral symptoms. In conclusion, this study indicated that the self-report PSCD shows preliminary promise as a reliable, easy-to-use tool, for measuring psychopathic traits in Italian children and young adolescents.

Background: In this systematic review, conducted according to the PRISMA 2020 guidelines, we aimed to assess differences in the cognitive processes associated with social cognition—namely language, theory of mind (ToM), and executive functions (EFs)—between ADHD and control groups. Methods: The review included studies indexed in PubMed, Google Scholar, and PsycINFO up until May 2024. Eligible original peer-reviewed articles met the following criteria: they were written in English, included a clinical group with a current primary ADHD diagnosis, were empirical, included quantitative data, and utilized standardized and validated measures with adequate psychometric properties to assess social cognitive processes. Results and Discussion: A total of 1215 individuals with ADHD participated in the selected studies. Out of the 22 articles reviewed, 17 reported significant differences between ADHD and the controls across several cognitive processes related to language and EF rather than ToM. These processes included pragmatic skills, verbal and nonverbal communication, emotional prosody, interaction skills, sarcasm, paradoxical sarcasm recognition, ambiguous situations, emotion recognition, false belief, social problem solving, social behaviors, and gesture codification. We also discuss the limitations of the research and the implications of our findings. Systematic review registration: PROSPERO ID: CRD42023474681.

Psychopathic traits in community and referred youths are strongly associated with severe externalizing problems and low prosocial behavior. However, less is known about the mechanisms that may link youth psychopathy and these outcomes. Social dominance orientation (SDO), defined as the general individual orientation toward unequal and dominant/subordinate relationships, might represent a valuable construct to explore to better understand the association between psychopathic traits, externalizing problems, and prosocial behavior. Based on this, the current study aimed to investigate the relationship between psychopathic traits, SDO, externalizing problems, and prosocial behavior in a community sample (N = 92, 45.57% females, mean age = 12.53, and SD = 0.60) and in a clinical (N = 29, 9% female, mean age = 12.57, and SD = 0.57) samples of adolescents with Oppositional Defiant Disorder or Conduct Disorder. Results showed that SDO mediated the relationship between psychopathic traits and externalizing problems and between psychopathic traits and prosocial behavior only in the clinical sample. These findings can provide valuable information on psychopathic trait correlates in youths with aggressive behavior disorders; treatment implications are discussed.

Although obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) and the conduct disorders (CD) express a contrasting symptomatology, they could represent different answers to a common matrix about morality. In the literature, some theoretical models describe people with OCD as individuals who experience high levels of responsibility and guilt. On the other hand, adolescents with a CD are described as if they do not feel guilty at all or consider anti-social purposes as more important than existing moral purposes. The aims of this study were to investigate the role of forgiveness in responsibility and guilt levels and to test whether this putative relation was influenced by tendencies towards obsessive–compulsive problems (OCP) or conduct problems (CP). In total, 231 adolescents aged between 16 and 18 years were self-assessed using a Youth Self-Report, Child Responsibility Attitudes Questionnaire, Heartland Forgiveness Scale, and Test Of Self-Conscious Affect. The results show that self-forgiveness predicted responsibility levels, while guilt was predicted by self-forgiveness and situation-forgiveness. Moreover, mediation analyses revealed that the effects of OCP on responsibility and guilt were mediated by self-forgiveness and situation-forgiveness. Regarding CP, no mediated effects were found. In conclusion, lower proneness to forgive increases responsibility and guilt, and this is particularly evident in subjects with higher levels of OCP.