Research Review: The importance of callous-unemotional traits for developmental models of aggressive and antisocial behavior

• Published in: Journal of child psychology and psychiatry Vol. 49; no. 4; pp. 359 - 375
• Main Authors: Frick, Paul J., White, Stuart F.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-04-2008; Blackwell Publishing; Blackwell
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Aggression; Aggression - psychology; Aggressiveness; Antisocial Behavior; Antisocial personality disorder; Antisocial Personality Disorder - prevention & control; Antisocial Personality Disorder - psychology; Behavior Therapy; Biological and medical sciences; Callous-unemotional traits; Causal Models; Child; Child clinical studies; Child psychology; Children; children and adolescents; conduct problems; Emotions; Empathy; Guilt; Humans; Individuality; Interpersonal Relations; Medical sciences; Models, Psychological; Personal Construct Theory; Personality; Personality Assessment; Personality Traits; Psychological Patterns; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; psychopathy; Risk Factors; Social behavior disorders; Social behavior disorders. Criminal behavior. Delinquency; Social Identification; Youth; Human; Affect affectivity; Antisocial behavior; psychopathy; Aggression; Conduct disorder; Emotion emotionality; Review; Theoretical model; Psychopathia; Adolescent; Development; children and adolescents; conduct problems; Social behavior disorder; Child; Callous-unemotional traits; Aggressiveness
• ISSN: 0021-9630; 1469-7610
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2007.01862.x

The current paper reviews research suggesting that the presence of a callous and unemotional interpersonal style designates an important subgroup of antisocial and aggressive youth. Specifically, callous‐unemotional (CU) traits (e.g., lack of guilt, absence of empathy, callous use of others) seem to be relatively stable across childhood and adolescence and they designate a group of youth with a particularly severe, aggressive, and stable pattern of antisocial behavior. Further, antisocial youth with CU traits show a number of distinct emotional, cognitive, and personality characteristics compared to other antisocial youth. These characteristics of youth with CU traits have important implications for causal models of antisocial and aggressive behavior, for methods used to study antisocial youth, and for assessing and treating antisocial and aggressive behavior in children and adolescents.