Citation

Kimonis ER, Frick PJ, Muñoz LC, Aucoin KJ. J. Abnorm. Child Psychol. 2007; 35(5): 773-785.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology & Social Behavior, School of Social Ecology, University of California, 3325 Social Ecology II, Irvine, CA 92697-7085, USA. ekimonis@uci.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s10802-007-9136-1

PMID

17510788

Abstract

In this cross-sectional study, we investigated whether the combination of the presence of callous-unemotional (CU) traits and emotional deficits to distressing stimuli, assessed by a computerized dot-probe task, enhanced the statistical prediction of aggression and delinquency in a sample of 88 detained and predominantly African-American (68%) adolescents (M age = 15.57; SD = 1.28). Overall, self-reported CU traits were associated with self-report measures of aggression and delinquency, but not with official records of arrests. However, there was an interaction between CU traits and emotional deficits for predicting self-reported aggression, self-reported violent delinquency, and a record of violent arrests. Youth high on CU traits and who showed a deficit in their responses to visual depictions of distress showed the highest levels of aggression and violent delinquency.

Language: en