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Attentional Orienting to Emotional Faces Moderates the Association Between Callous-Unemotional Traits and Peer-Nominated Aggression in Young Adolescent School Children

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Abstract

Callous-unemotional (CU) traits are associated with aggressive behavior but preliminary research suggests this relationship is modified by patterns of emotional processing. This study examined whether attentional orienting to emotional faces moderated the association between CU traits and peer-nominated aggression in 251 middle school students (53% females, mean age = 13.24 years, SD = 0.73). Attentional orienting was assessed using an emotional faces (i.e., angry, fearful, happy, sad, and neutral) variant of the dot-probe task. Students also completed a self-report measure of CU traits and their classmates made peer nominations of aggression. Logistic regression analyses showed that peer-nominated aggression was positively related to CU traits at low levels of attentional orienting to angry faces, whereas aggression was unrelated to CU traits at high levels of attentional orienting to angry faces. That is, peer-nominated aggression was greatest for youth high on CU traits who were not engaged by angry faces. These findings support the importance of considering different patterns of emotional responding when studying the association between CU traits and aggressive behavior in youth.

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Acknowledgments

Thanks to the deans, the teachers, the staff, and the students of the Schools B. Sestini (Agliana, Pistoia, Italy) and Roncalli-Galilei (Pistoia, Italy).

Funding

This study was supported in part by a grant named “Bando 2013” of the foundation “Fondazione Cassa Di Risparmio di Pistoia e Pescia” (Prot. n. 2013.0175/ep).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education and Psychology, University of Florence, Via di San Salvi 12, Complesso di San Salvi Padiglione 26, 50135, Florence, Italy

    Enrica Ciucci, Andrea Baroncelli, Giovanna Tambasco & Carolina Facci

  2. School of Psychology, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

    Eva Kimonis

  3. Department of Psychology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA

    Paul J. Frick

  4. Learning Sciences Institute of Australia, Australian Catholic University, Brisbane, Australia

    Paul J. Frick

  5. Department of Neuroscience, Psychology, Drug Research & Child’s Health, University of Florence, Florence, Italy

    Stefania Righi

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  1. Enrica Ciucci
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  2. Eva Kimonis
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  4. Stefania Righi
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  5. Andrea Baroncelli
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Correspondence to Enrica Ciucci.

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Ciucci, E., Kimonis, E., Frick, P.J. et al. Attentional Orienting to Emotional Faces Moderates the Association Between Callous-Unemotional Traits and Peer-Nominated Aggression in Young Adolescent School Children. J Abnorm Child Psychol 46, 1011–1019 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-017-0357-7

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