Psychometric properties of the inventory of callous-unemotional in preschool students.

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Objective: To test the psychometric properties of the parent-report version of the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional in Chinese preschool students. Methods: A total of 514 preschoolers were tested with the ICU, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), and Social Competence Scale (SCS). Results: (1) Due to non-significant item-total correlations, four items were removed (items 1, 10, 19, and 22). (2) Exploratory factor analysis showed that two factors should be extracted without Unemotional factor compared to the original ICU. (3) Internal consistencies of ICU total score. Callous and Uncaring were good, and the alpha coefficients of which were 0.82, 0.75 and 0.74, respectively. (4) ICU total and factor scores were significantly and positively correlated with Emotional Symptoms (r = 0.10~0.20), Conduct Problems (r = 0.31~0.37), Inattention-Hyperactivity (r = 0.39~0.47), Peer Problems (r = 0.13~0.17), and negatively correlated with Prosocial Behavior (r = -0.31 ~ -0.53), SCS total (r = -0.40 ~ -0.58) and sub-scale scores (r = -0.35 ~ -0.58) at zero-order level. Partial correlations indicated that the two ICU factors are at least in part dependent of each other in their relation to the external criterion measures. Conclusion: The psychometric properties of the 2-factor ICU are acceptable in Chinese preschoolers.