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The Association between Callous-Unemotional Traits and Behavioral and Academic Adjustment in Children: Further Validation of the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits

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Abstract

Callous-unemotional (CU) traits have been associated with problems in behavioral adjustment in past research which has led to proposals to include them in diagnostic classification systems for child behavior problems. In the current study, the factor structure of a comprehensive measure of CU traits was tested in a sample of 540 Italian children in grades 6 and 8. Consistent with past factor analyses in other countries, CU traits could be described as having three subfactors (i.e., callousness, uncaring, unemotional) which load on an overarching general factor. Importantly, this factor structure was invariant across gender and grade. Consistent with past studies, CU traits were positively associated with school behavior problems, bullying, and reactive aggression and this was largely accounted for by the callousness and uncaring subscales. The current results advance past work in showing that these associations extend to cyberbullying and to bullying reported by both self-report and by peer nominations. Further, CU traits were also associated with lower levels of academic achievement, and this was also largely accounted for by the callousness and uncaring dimensions. Finally, although the unemotional subscale did not show consistent associations with problems in behavioral or academic adjustment, it did contribute independently to the prediction (negatively) of peer-reported prosocial behaviors.

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Notes

  1. The primary reason for attempting the hierarchical factor structure was the failure of a number of items to show significant factor loadings when testing a bifactor model. However, the hierarchical factor model only resulted in adequate fit using modification indices. When modification indices were tried for the bifactor model, the resulting fit indices did not show a substantial increase in fit and a number of non-significant factor loadings remained.

  2. In much of the past research testing the factor structure of the ICU, a bi-factor structure was supported as the best fitting model, rather than the hierarchical factor structure supported in the current sample. One possibility for this difference in findings is the methodology used in the current study which normalized item scores which we felt was justified because of the highly skewed distributions of some items. In support of this explanation for the somewhat discrepant results, when the factor analyses were repeated using non-normalized scores, the best fitting model was a bi-factor model (X 2 (df = 187) = 383.62; GFI = .94; AGFI = .92; RMSEA = .04; AIC = 517.62).

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by a grant of University of Florence named “Progetto di ricerca scientifica d'Ateneo (ex quota 60 %). Anno 2011”. Thanks to the students, parents, the Dean (Angela Desideri), the teachers and staff of the School B. Sestini (Agliana, Pistoia, Italy) for their cooperation. Thanks also to Professor Luigi Abbate for his work in the translation of the ICU, Stefania Apollonio and Camilla Gotti for the data collection.

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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 & Marta Franchi

  2. Department of Health Sciences, University of Florence, Via di San Salvi 12 Complesso di San Salvi Padiglione 26, 50135, Florence, Italy

    Andrea Baroncelli

  3. Department of Psychology, University of New Orleans, 2001 Geology/Psychology Building, Lakefront Campus 2000 Lakeshore Drive New Orleans, Louisiana, LA, 70148, USA

    Farrah Naz Golmaryami & Paul J. Frick

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  1. Enrica Ciucci
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  2. Andrea Baroncelli
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  5. Paul J. Frick
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Correspondence to Enrica Ciucci.

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Ciucci, E., Baroncelli, A., Franchi, M. et al. The Association between Callous-Unemotional Traits and Behavioral and Academic Adjustment in Children: Further Validation of the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 36, 189–200 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-013-9384-z

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