ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the research conducted in early childhood and highlights areas where further research is needed during this key period in human development. Theories of temperament and personality, and developmental psychology research, inform much of the understanding of which dispositional traits are particularly likely to predict serious conduct problems and later criminal involvement. A growing number of genetically informed studies have examined the etiology of callous-unemotional traits in children, adolescents, and young adults. The addition of the methyl molecule to sites in a gene promoter region can alter gene expression, thus limiting the level of protein encoded by the gene. The chapter concludes with future research directions, including important gaps in the research literature and newly emerging approaches to examining gene–environment interplay that could be applied to research on the emergence of the dispositional traits during early childhood.
