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Callous-Unemotional Traits and Co-occurring Anxiety in Preschool and School-age Children: Investigation of Associations with Family’s Socioeconomic Status and Home Chaos

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Abstract

While contemporary literature has traditionally viewed youth with Callous-Unemotional (CU) traits as a homogeneous group, there is a growing interest in delineating two variants of CU traits based on high or low levels of anxiety. Extensive attention has been brought in the CU traits literature to the study of relational factors such as maltreatment and parenting practices. However, very few studies have looked at other environmental contexts in which the children within these two variants evolve, such as home chaos or socioeconomic status (SES). In a community sample of children aged 4 to 9, divided into a preschool sample (N = 107; Mage = 4.95, SD = 0.62) and a school-age sample (N = 153; Mage = 7.49, SD = 1.11), the current study investigated whether anxiety moderates the associations of CU traits with SES and home chaos. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that CU traits were positively associated with home chaos, regardless of anxiety levels. CU traits were negatively associated with SES, but this effect emerged only at high levels of anxiety. Notably, these findings were observed solely in the school-age subsample. Implications for understanding the two variants of CU traits (i.e., primary and secondary) and hypotheses regarding their developmental trajectories are discussed.

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Data, Materials and Code Availability

The study materials, analysis code and output are available by emailing the corresponding author. 

Notes

  1. The term “broad CU traits” is used to talk about CU traits without making a distinction between the two variants.

  2. To address potential biases resulting from non-normally distributed residuals, robust regression analyses were performed using bootstrapping to compute confidence intervals and p-values. This approach allowed for the avoidance of normality assumptions and the acquisition of precise estimates of the population value of coefficient b for each predictor. In the preschool sample, ODP symptoms were significantly associated with home chaos (b = 0.41 [0.15, 0.60], p = 0.00). In the school-age sample, the findings revealed significant associations with SES for the child’s gender (b = 0.30 [0.07, 0.53], p = 0.02), as well as a significant interaction between CU traits and anxiety (b = -0.01 [-0.01, -0.002], p = 0.01). These results closely align with non-robust regression analyses.

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  1. Research Unit for a life-Course perspective on Health & Education, University of Liege, Place des Orateurs, 1, 4000, Liege, Belgium

    Morgane Payot, Christian Monseur, Marie Stievenart & Maria Elena Brianda

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Payot, M., Monseur, C., Stievenart, M. et al. Callous-Unemotional Traits and Co-occurring Anxiety in Preschool and School-age Children: Investigation of Associations with Family’s Socioeconomic Status and Home Chaos. Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-023-01158-6

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