Callous-unemotional traits and the emotional processing of distress cues in detained boys: Testing the moderating role of aggression, exposure to community violence, and histories of abuse

Kimonis, E.R.; Frick, P.J.; Muñoz, L.C.; Aucoin, K.J.

doi:10.1017/s095457940800028x

Callous-unemotional traits and the emotional processing of distress cues in detained boys: Testing the moderating role of aggression, exposure to community violence, and histories of abuse

Kimonis, E.R.; Frick, P.J.; Muñoz, L.C.; Aucoin, K.J.

Authors

E.R. Kimonis

P.J. Frick

L.C. Muñoz

K.J. Aucoin

Contributors

LC Centifanti fmnv66@durham.ac.uk
Other

Abstract

Callous-unemotional (CU) traits in antisocial youth have been associated with deficits in the processing of emotionally distressing stimuli in a number of past studies. In the current study, we investigated moderators of this association in a sample of 88 ethnically diverse detained boys (mean age = 15.57, SD = 1.28). Overall, emotional processing of distressing stimuli using a dot-probe task was not related to CU traits and there was no moderating effect of ethnicity. However, CU traits were related to deficits in emotional processing in youth high on aggression and youth high on exposure to community violence. Further, youth high on CU traits but with enhanced orienting to distressing stimuli had stronger histories of abuse, supporting the possibility that there may be environmentally influenced pathways in the development of these traits.

Citation

Kimonis, E., Frick, P., Muñoz, L., & Aucoin, K. (2008). Callous-unemotional traits and the emotional processing of distress cues in detained boys: Testing the moderating role of aggression, exposure to community violence, and histories of abuse. Development and Psychopathology, 20(2), 569-589. https://doi.org/10.1017/s095457940800028x

Journal Article Type	Article
Publication Date	Jan 1, 2008
Deposit Date	Aug 10, 2011
Publicly Available Date	Sep 18, 2012
Journal	Development and Psychopathology
Print ISSN	0954-5794
Electronic ISSN	1469-2198
Publisher	Cambridge University Press
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	20
Issue	2
Pages	569-589
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1017/s095457940800028x

Files

Published Journal Article (284 Kb)
PDF

Copyright Statement
© Copyright Cambridge University Press 2008. This paper has been published by Cambridge University Press in "Development & psychopathology" (20: 2 (2008) 569-589) http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=DPP